Retail

Video: Burglar drives his SUV through an Apple Store window

Turns out it's easier to get into than out of those big glass facades

FORTUNE -- The Riverside Press-Enterprise Wednesday had the story -- and surveillance video -- of a Los Angeles man charged with driving his 2003 BMW X5 into the Apple (AAPL) retail store in Temecula, Calif., for a quick smash and grab. You've got to see it to believe it.

Report traces Apple Store turmoil all the way to Tim Cook

The shift in emphasis from service to profits comes from the top, say insiders

FORTUNE -- After Apple (AAPL) public relations released a statement calling staffing cutbacks at its Apple Stores a "mistake" that was being reversed, many thought that John Browett's days at the company might be numbered.

Browett is the Wharton MBA who was brought in from the giant British electronics chain Dixons to run Apple's retail operations after their MORE

Apple Store chief admits he 'messed up.' Bloggers smell blood.

Company acknowledges "mistake" as planned cutbacks are reversed

Daring Fireball's John Gruber likened it to the most vicious dressing down of a sales staff in American film history -- Alec Baldwin's tirade in Glengarry Glen Ross. The Loop's Jim Dalrymple called it "one of the worst decisions" Apple (AAPL) had made in a decade. "This has the stench," Dalrymple wrote, "of a man looking to make a name for himself."

When two bloggers who MORE

The cult of the Apple Store

Part 4 of the New York Times' series takes readers inside the indoctrination process

FORTUNE -- If you've ever wondered what kind of training is required to get Apple employees to behave the way they do at the opening of a new retail outlet or the launch of a new iPhone -- whooping, hollering and tearing around the shopping mall -- David Segal's front-page story in Sunday's New York Times offers MORE

Chart of the day: The Apple Store trounces Tiffany's

In dollars per sq. ft., the stores are 17 times more efficient than the average mall outlet

For more on Apple's (AAPL) retail efficiency, see Horace Dediu's analysts at Asymco.com.

Video: Chinese security guards clash at the great wall of Apple

Cameras capture the takedown of banners promoting the "world's biggest" Apple store

Retail can be a tough business, especially in China, as Apple (AAPL) discovered Wednesday.

The video below, shot from a security camera, shows a platoon of Chinese security guards taking down a barricade that Apple had constructed outside an upscale shopping mall to promote a forthcoming Apple store billed as the "world's biggest."

The mall is in Dalain, a thriving seaport city MORE

Video: Thousands queue up for Apple's Grand Central store

And hundreds more crowd the terminal's main lobby to see what the fuss is about

What if Apple (AAPL) opened a new store and nobody came? We may never know. Thousands turned out early Friday for the opening of its fifth retail store in Manhattan, this one perched on the balconies above the main lobby of Grand Central Terminal.

The company promised free T-shirts for the first 4,000 visitors. By 11:00 a.m., MORE

Apple's Grand Central Terminal Store will miss Black Friday

The sign says "arriving soon," but don't hold your breath

Apple (AAPL) hasn't set a date for the grand opening of its fifth Manhattan store, but according to a construction worker who spoke to Mashable's Samantha Murphy, it won't be before December.

For more on the store, see Apple's Grand Central store would be its cheapest in NYC.

The 'EasyTheft' do-it-yourself Apple Store goes live Thursday

Who needs a staffer when you can scan, pay and walk out of the store unattended?

[UPDATE: The new version of the Apple Store app finally arrived Tuesday, Nov. 8, a few days later than expected. You can get it here.]

Apple (AAPL) has two problems its competitors would kill for: 1) It can't build new product fast enough to meet demand and 2) its stores are over-crowded with customers clamoring for MORE

One city, 22 fake Apple stores

An official search of Kunming, China, yields a surfeit of unauthorized Apple retail shops

Three weeks after an American blogger visiting the capital of China's Yunnan province posted the first photographs of a copycat Apple Store so convincing that even some of the sales staff thought they were working for Steve Jobs, Chinese authorities have identified 22 more unauthorized Apple stores in Kunming city.

According to a Reuters report filed Thursday, the MORE