uninteresting :: rich

a nice piece on the state of Apple retail stores:

NY Times: Inside Apple Stores, a Certain Aura Enchants the Faithful

By KATIE HAFNER
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.

Apple trades at $200 for first time - BusinessWeek.com

Shares of Apple Inc. hit the $200 mark for the first time Wednesday, as investor confidence in the company continued rising near the end of what has been a strong year for the iPod and computer maker….

we did some wedding band shopping the other day. the Macy’s lady was all frazzled from the holiday rush, and basically told us to come back after the holidays or to try Tiffany’s because many of their styles weren’t available (they had about 10 to choose from). suprisingly, over at Tiffany’s the selection wasn’t much better. finally, we happened into a little boutique jeweler that had a better selection and were willing to customize the designs (we both want matte finishes, not shiny). still deciding between white gold and platinum. best of all, it’s not looking like it’ll be ridiculously expensive. we’re not quite ready to buy and plan to do more research and comparison shopping, but at least it’s an option that we’d both be happy with.