We went to the NYC Apple store this week. OK, everyone else went to FAO Schwarz and I went on my own. Architecturally it’s great, though the fact that it was raining outside and air conditioned meant that there was condensation on the inside. Two of the highly-trained sales consultants were busy welcoming guests; one to tell people to hold on to the handrail (the glass steps being slick), the other to sheath visitor’s umbrellas in…well, you complete the joke.

Inside was an impressive disappointment. More iPodia than you could shake a stick at, which is nice and profitable I suppose though not much relevance to me. The rest of the store seemed mainly to be an internet cafe; a little selling was going on, but mainly browsing in the electronic, not retail, sense. It took me a while to find the mice, a range so limited my local MicroCenter could humble it in their Mac section alone. In fact I couldn’t even find Apple’s own mice at all, products that I would have expected to be stocked.

Still, you don’t go to the Sistine Chapel and complain that you’ve got a stiff neck. I have worshipped at the church of Steve, and it was good.