Apple unveilings are always crowded affairs — and this was no exception. Masses of people crammed up the double stairwell to the balcony retail space to see what Apple had done this time. Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store is already the top-selling chain store in the United States and always seems crowded. But this 23,000-square-foot location could rival any other for foot traffic: Pick your “busy” cliché, and it probably invokes Grand Central Terminal, through which 750,000 people pass through every day — 1 million during the holidays.
The trick will be to lure enough of these harried commuters to make it pay off, and Apple doesn’t take this lightly. Explaining why there was little chance for the kind of success he required Steve Jobs personally lectured the Cupertino, Calif. Town Council about why he wouldn’t even open a store in the town where Apple is headquartered: not enough foot traffic.
Your typical rail-rider allows for maybe a two-second margin of error to make a train. On the other hand, there are now dozens of high-end retail establishments at the Beaux Arts landmark, including the legendary Oyster Bar, which has been doing just fine for almost 100 years, a holiday crafts mart in Vanderbilt Hall (a former waiting room) and a dozens of boutique shops. Apple itself displaced tony restaurant Metrazur which had led the retail Renaissance, capped today by the opening of its newest store. So clearly there is some consuming going on despite all the frenzy.
Even at noon when this intrepid reporter made her way into the breach the line was huge. But apparently it was miniscule compared to this morning. ”I will come all the time,” said Mike Riordan, who was picking up some iPods for his kids before trekking north to Westchester County. This seemed to be the general feel at the store, where the press mingled with tourists, and people in office attire grabbing items on their holiday shopping lists as they left the city.
When Apple announced the new location, many New Yorkers were worried that the beautiful 1913 Beaux Arts building would be tainted by Apple’s modern design-scheme. Apple, as usual, kept all plans on lockdown — until this morning. it is the one of the history
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