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I don't doubt you,

I doubt everyone, so I checked.

OP and the other posters are wrong. The stone is not granite, it's sandstone, and was chosen for it's color and consistency, not it's wear capabilities.

Now it’s revealed that the process of creating the stone floor tiles and large wall slabs falls to the Il Casone quarry, formed in 1962 by four stonemason families with generations of experience in creating subtle beauty from rough rock. The company’s quarry is north of Florence in the small town of Firenzuola, in the heart of a geologic region of sandstone called Pietra Serena. The blue-gray color of the stone, its texture and tone all contribute to the overall look of the finished Apple store.

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2...

"Among the specific issues is ambiguity about how company policies and regulations are administered and enforced, Moll says. Many policies are set at the corporate level, but regional and store managers have discretion to change the rules or enforce them differently..."

Umm... correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how management works, and why there's a manager in every store adapting to what works best for their particular store.

Even pay has its variabilities. “They don’t really have a pay scale. I believe that’s largely up to each region and each market,” Moll says. Like most national companies, Apple’s pay rates vary according by region. But unlike most companies, store managers seem to have the ability to hire new employees at rates beyond the range, Moll says.

Again, this is a little thing called "empowerment" which means their store managers can actually make decisions on how to best run their particular store. I'm guessing the cost of living differs dramatically across all the locations where Apple has stores, and store mangers could use the discretion to retain particularly valuable staff who might have an extra hour's commute, for example?

"Moll also says there’s a lot of “favoritism among store management teams, or un-favoritism,” when good-performing employees are unfairly evaluated. “They try to find ways to get rid of those employees, where they may be scrutinized more than others,” he says"

Now this one seems to be the crux of the matter. personally I find it hard to believe that store managers are queuing up to get rid of their best performing employees. I could, however, understand if a store manager paid particular attention to someone who might be doing decent sales, but had an attitude problem that could cause issues.

From that interview, everything he says makes Apple look like a progressive employer who empowers their management to reward the staff who add value to the business. This sounds like sour grapes from someone who has worked "in multiple stores" and can't get past the shop floor for whatever reason. Could it be the big chip on his shoulder noticing that other people seem to be doing better than him?

"...That is ridiculously heavy staffing for retail."

and they can afford to staff it well with AVERAGE annual sales per sq ft of ~$4000
for comparison: Best Buy = $971, Target = $300
Average Mall Store sales (for other stores) are around $400 per sq ft.

ref from 2006: "so Johnson then offered some comparison between Apple and electronics retailer Best Buy. An Apple store does 67% of the revenue of a typical Best Buy store, he said, in just 10 percent of the square-footage."

Because their design aesthetic matches my spartan apartment and my geek-chic lifestyle? Because cash registers are so last year? (I just noticed this last one - I'm late to the party).

It was stated last year that each store pulls in about 24m a year.
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/thinkequity_2006_rj.html

Jason Tomczak is NOT the lead plantiff. He was listed as lead-plantiff when the complaint was originally filed on October 19th, 2005. ( documentation here: http://www.ifoapplestore.com/blog/nano_lawsuit.pdf )

But the lawyers amended their lawsuit 6 days later (October 25th, 2005) naming James M. Wimmer as the lead-plantiff ( documentation: http://www.hbsslaw.com/files/1ST_Amd_Complaint%20( v2)1130368932535.pdf )

But by the time Jason was dropped, the damage was done. He is referenced all over the 'net as a sue-happy whiner.

The lawyers are NOT suing Jason to stop him from dropping out. In fact, as best I can tell from Jason's letter, he is suing them for all the problems they caused him.

BTW: Its significant to note that this is the same law firm suing Apple over hearing-loss issues related to iPods.

Apple Stores are nicer, but according to http://www.ifoapplestore.com/ the employees have their quota of Applecare guarantees to sell:

"Apple has reportedly tweaked the metrics is uses to guage employee and store performance to put more emphasis on ProCare service and less on .Mac sales. Previously Apple's bonus and performance program set attach rates of 60% for the AppleCare extended warranty, 40% for .Mac accounts and 20% for ProCare. Attach rates indicate what percentage of computer sales are accompanied by the sale of other products. Employees who want to demonstrate excellent performance are expected to meet or exceed these rates. In the lastest revision, Apple did not change the attach rate for AppleCare, but did make changes to the other two: they lowered .Mac from 40% to 30%, and increased ProCare from 20% to 30%. There have been persistent reports that only 40% to 60% of .Mac accounts sold are ever registered by buyers, perhaps leading Apple to de-emphasize sales of .Mac. Increasingly crowded Genius Bars may have likewise encouraged Apple to convert more computer buyers to ProCare, which offers improved service benefits."

On a second note, the average slashdot reader might have no problem understanding what iPod Express is and that the receipt is supposed to be mailed to you, but not everybody knows what they were getting into. While I was in an Apple store before Christmas, I had the joy of listening to one of the Express employees trying to convince a skeptical customer that an emailed receipt for an in-store purchase is perfectly valid. The employee ended up disappearing briefly and returning with a paper receipt. Based on this Ars article, it looks like this is a common occurance.

ifo Applestore has a different take on the iPod Express Concept.
  Perhaps the most serious glitch was procedural-using e-mail to generate a receipt for the ordinary customer when checking them out with a portable device. Several customers reported being surprised at the requirement, and were reluctant to give out their e-mail addresses for fear of receiving unsolicited marketing e-mail or even spam. Hey, who wanted to admit that your e-mail address was "kickass@gmail.com"? In some cases customers requested a printed receipt, slowing down the otherwise prompt check-out, and in other cases the customer's ISP was blocking mail from Apple so no receipt was ever delivered. [I'll admit true Mac users are more likely to prefer skipping the paper and receiving an e-mail receipt, and probably have a secondary, "disposable" e-mail address.]

...

So while the concept was well-intentioned, and the staff worked hard to make it successful, the iPod Express needs some tweaking before its rolled out again.

the iPod Express purchase counters were marginally implemented, while the portable check-out devices rated even lower on a useability scale.

Sometimes it didn't work as well as advertised.

But yes, they're going to tweak it and use it anyway.

Was this present at all Apple Stores during the holiday season? I seem to have completely missed it.

According to ifoApplestore.com http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/san_fran.html/ the first person in line for the San Fran Apple opening only stayed overnight for 2 nights rather than 3.

BTW- if you want to follow anything to do with Apple Stores, follow the above website. I am not affiliated with it, just have found it very informative and enjoyable.

-Stormy

Dell is already in the shopping malls. From ifoAppleStore:
Dell Computer doesn't depend only upon its telephone and on-line sales: they have 81 kiosks within the hallways of shopping centers in 11 states. They're now running a billboard promotion with the tag line, "We're In The Mall."