Results tagged “gadget”

There may be a recession, but Apple products might be nearly recession-proof. According to Bloomberg News, the company's Fifth Avenue store at 59th Street is the highest grossing store along that ritzy part of the street, which includes Tiffany & Co., Harry Winston, and Abercrombie & Fitch. While Apple doesn't disclose store specific data, given that Apple's overall store revenue has increased by 2.5% and other neighboring stores' company revenue has declined 22-30%, the guess is that the Fifth Avenue Apple store has $350 million in annual sales or $35,000 of sales per square foot (per square foot, Tiffany does less than half). Native New Yorkers and tourists alike flock there, and one analyst explained, "Even if [people] are not spending money elsewhere, people are still spending money on technology gadgets. It’s both a need and a want. It fulfills that retail-therapy component." Apple's retail chief Ron Johnson pointed out that the location is open 24/7: "The middle of the night is a really interesting time. It’s the waiters in the restaurants, it’s the actors on the stage. When they’re off work, they may not want to go off to a club or want to go home." He also confirmed that the Upper West Side location will open later this year.

A few more details about subway robberies being slightly up in 2008 compared to 2007. Apparently a third of those subway thefts were for cell phones. WCBS 2 reports, "Police say the easiest marks are the riders near the doors. Thieves time it so that just as the doors are about to close, they make their grab and take off, leaving the victim trapped inside the train, and helpless to do anything about it." One rider was philosophical "You know if [my phone] gets stolen, I'd rather let it get stolen than get stabbed or something like that." And just last summer, a cop told the Daily News, "A kid taking out an iPhone and using it is like waving around $300."

Yesterday, the Gothamist Newsmap noted there was a "suspicious package" at the Flatbush & 7th Avenue subway station in Brooklyn. It now turns out it was a backpack that started to smoke, by way of a science project.