“To create the newest Apple store to sell iPhones, smartwatches and other modern gadgetry, Apple took a look back at the 1920s,” Nick Jesdanun and Barbara Ortutay report for The Associated Press. “The new store on New York’s Upper East Side occupies part of a Beaux Arts building that originally housed the U.S. Mortgage & Trust bank. Apple sought to restore some of the building’s old grandeur by reproducing the original chandeliers seen in old photographs, restoring marble floors and pilasters and turning a bank vault into a VIP showroom.”

“It’s all part of Apple’s effort to keep its stores distinct – not just from other retailers but from each other,” Jesdanun and Ortutay report. “And as Apple looks to open new stores or renovate existing ones – including the iconic New York Fifth Avenue store, with its distinctive glass-cube entrance – the company will look for additional ways to do that.”

“Upper East Side will be Apple’s 266th store in the U.S. and seventh in New York City, a key market for Apple because it gets twice as much traffic as stores in other U.S. cities,” Jesdanun and Ortutay report. “The Fifth Avenue store, which draws tourists from around the world, will temporarily move soon to another iconic space, the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store that Tom Hanks made famous in ‘Big.'”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Oh, great, more fodder for the drooling contingent who randomly blurt out, “Apple makes toys!” while helmeted for their own safety.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Lynn Weiler,” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

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