I can speak to my experience at our local Apple Store. It has been open for about 6 years now, in Albany. A core group of employees have remained, while many of the floor associates change often, and are mostly college kids.
I have personally witnessed some of these associates struggle to explain why, a potential customer should buy a Mac, verus going upstairs to Best Buy and getting a HP. Mainly they lack the knowledge of Mac OSX.
A specific example, once a middle aged professional was looking at the PB line. He was asking the associate questions, naturally based around some small business needs. The gentlemen's concern was how the Mac would be able to communicate with Windows clients. He asked the associate, "many of my clients send me files in PDF format, how can I read and create these on the Mac? The associate went on to explain, he would have to get Acrobat reader, to read and create PDF files.
If Apple is worried that Best Buy and the like don't push their products, they should also consider training some of the Apple Store employees as well.