Inside Apple Stores, a Certain Aura Enchants the Faithful
It was 2 o�clock in the morning but in the subterranean retailing mecca in Midtown Manhattan, otherwise known as the Apple store, it might as well have been midafternoon.
Late one night shortly before Christmas, parents pushed strollers and tourists straight off the plane mingled with nocturnal New Yorkers, clicking through iPod playlists, cruising the Internet on MacBooks, and touch-padding their way around iPhones.
And through the night, cheerful sales staff stayed busy, ringing up customers at the main checkout counter and on hand-held devices in an uninterrupted stream of brick-and-mortar commerce.
The party inside that store and in 203 other Apple stores around the world is one reason the company�s stock is up nearly 135 percent for the year. By contrast, high-flying Google is up about 52 percent, while the tech-dominated Nasdaq index is up 12 percent.
The popularity of the iPhone and iPod and the intended halo effect those products have had on sales of Apple computers are behind Apple�s vigor. But the company�s success in retailing, as other competitors struggle to eke out sales growth, has been the bonus.
Read more: nytimes.com
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