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纽约最大的苹果

在我看来，零售店的转变所体现的远不止是纽约房地产市场的变幻莫测。毕竟，FAO Schwarz并不是普通的老牌玩具店：最近数十年，它象征的是20世纪儿童消费者的梦想，当然，这也是长久以来很多家庭蜂拥至此，凝视那些玩具和那台著名钢琴的原因。

In recent decades, like so many 20th-century American icons, the glittering façade hasconcealed a sense of rot. For while tourists have visited the store in droves, they have notbeen spending money on the scale that FAO Schwarz’s owner — Toys R Us — needs. Thesedays families tend to buy toys at budget downmarket shops (think Walmart) or upscaleboutique outfits (such as American Girl). The middle has been squeezed — making it hard tojustify Fifth Avenue rents.

最近几十年，就像那么多20世纪美国的标志性物品一样，那座光芒闪耀的店铺流露出一种衰败的味道。这是因为，尽管游客成群结队地走进这家商店，但他们在这里花的钱却一直无法达到FAO Schwarz的所有者——玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)——需要的水平。如今，家长往往要不就在经济型低端商店(比如沃尔玛(Walmart))，要不就在高端精品店(比如美国女孩(American Girl))里购买玩具。中端商店受到挤压——使得其很难支付得起第五大道的租金。

But at Apple’s glass cube consumers are not just thronging to look but to spend money too.Never mind the fact that the shopping experience itself is often horrid. (When I descendedthere myself recently, to get a new iPhone, the basement was so jam-packed and salesassistants so scarce that it felt like the retail equivalent of the seventh circle of hell.)