Apple Stores Go From Dream Retail Job to Latest US Labor Fight

The Apple Store where you’ll do some holiday shopping this year looks the same as always. White-oak tables in neat rows welcome you beneath a gleaming Apple logo, the same one you’d see at the store along the Champs-Elysées or in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa. There’s enough white light and open space to make you think you’re walking through a literal Consumer Heaven.

And, of course, there’s the Genius Bar, a help center that for most of the past two decades has felt like something of a personal concierge service fueled by a small army of friendly, helpful ...