I brought an ancient and non-functioning Mac to the Apple Store in the Meatpacking District in NYC, and this is what happened.

Overall, they were surprisingly unfazed by my request for repairs. They were impressed that I had it, and seemed genuinely interested in helping me get it fixed. They couldn’t do anything for me, since Apple only keeps equipment from the last five years on hand, but they pointed me towards Tekserve, another Apple-centric store in NYC.

Thanks to Blakeley from Gawker.tv for shooting the hidden camera footage!

I call it a temple because the architecture conveys a nearly religious aesthetic, a place to worship Apple, beyond any other Apple store you’ve ever been to. The top floor’s a vast open space, enclosed by spartan stone walls which support a massive glass ceiling. The rows of tables in the main room feel like pews.

I can’t tell you — and the pictures can’t show you — how utterly open and expansive the room feels. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are about 14m tall, and could fit 11 Apple Cubes inside. The spareness is breathtaking. It’s cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room comes from the products. It’s a temple to them, really.

The beating heart, where things actually happen is tucked underground. The Genius Bar and personal-training space is the biggest ever in an Apple store, able to handle up to 100 customers at once. It’s pretty much like any other Apple store down there, just bigger.

It’s impressive. Especially considering that it used to be a Victoria’s Secret. It opens Saturday, and they’re giving away 2500 commemorative shirts, if you’re that kind of crazy.

Apple Store Upper West Side Opening on Saturday, November 14

NEW YORK-November 12, 2009-Apple® will open its newest retail store on New York’s Upper West Side on Saturday, November 14 at 10:00 a.m. Set beneath a breathtaking all-glass arched roof, the street level of the Apple Store® Upper West Side offers more Macs, iPods and iPhones than any store in the world for an incredible hands-on experience. The lower level features the largest area ever created by Apple for personal training and technical support, including a 45-foot Genius Bar. Located on Broadway at 67th Street, the Apple Store Upper West Side is just minutes from Lincoln Center and Central Park.

“We opened our first store in Manhattan seven years ago, and the response has been incredible,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “We hope our new store on the Upper West Side will become as much a part of the community as our stores in SoHo, the Meatpacking District and on Fifth Avenue.”

A highly trained team of more than 200 employees brings the unique Apple retail experience to the Upper West Side, offering the same legendary services that Apple stores provide around the world. At the Genius Bar, customers can get free advice and expert tech support from knowledgeable experts. Customers who buy a Mac® at the Apple Store Upper West Side can join the popular One to One program for personal set-up service and personal training for just $99. Visitors can also get free tips from Specialists who are on-hand to help shoppers find the perfect gift or choose the right Mac, iPod® or iPhone® for themselves.

In time for the holiday season, customers can now reserve their favorite Apple product online at www.apple.com/retail/reserve and pick it up at their local Apple store between December 15-24. Apple retail stores will also gift wrap any iPod or portable Mac for just $5.

The Apple Store Upper West Side is the fourth in Manhattan and Apple’s 15th in the New York metro area, joining the hugely successful Apple Stores SoHo, West 14th Street and Fifth Avenue. Nearly 170 million people on four continents have visited Apple retail stores this year. Apple now operates 280 stores in ten countries including the US, UK, Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, China, Switzerland, Germany and France.

The Apple Store Upper West Side is located at 1981 Broadway, on the corner of West 67th Street. The first 2,500 visitors to the store will receive a limited edition, commemorative t-shirt.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

The numbers, admittedly, are impressive.

• Apple’s total sales in 2001 were $US5.4 billion. Apple Stores this year: $US6.6 billion. (Apple’s total sales this year were $US36.5 billion.)

• They hit 170 million visitors this year, and 10 million people hit Genius Bars for personal training.

• Sales per store — $US26 million, which is just below what Macy’s, Target and Best Buy make per store. But, if you look at the real estate, it’s a slightly different picture. Apple Stores do sales of $US4300 per square foot which is five times the $US872 per square foot Best Buy does.

• Wow — over 100,000 applicants on file for jobs at the Apple Store worldwide, 10,000 people submitted applications for the new Upper West Side store. Just over 200 got a job.

• Apple realised they were going too small with their stores, so now all of their stores will be at least “three tables wide”. In other words, they’re going to be bigger. They’re also going to be opening more stores next year, more like 50. More of them will be “significant stores”, iconic ones like the Fifth Ave store with the Apple Cube. And they’ll be going more international, adding stores all over Europe, like the UK, Paris and two in Shanghai getting those “significant stores”.

• All checkouts are done using an iPod touch now with a new EasyPay system, if you care about the purity of the Apple Store and the old Windows Mobile system offended you.

OK, BIG NEWS. They’re gift-wrapping for the first time ever. And you can reserve presents. Your Christmas is now officially complete. You’re welcome.

Apple is in the process of retiring their massive fleet of Windows CE handhelds, made by Symbol Technologies and introduced back in 2005, with custom-designed iPod Touches. The initial announcement made this sound like a self-satisfied, gloating move by Apple, during which they’d happily—and publicly—ditch their clunky, ugly, jury-rigged handhelds for sleek, shiny iPod Touches. But judging by the photos nabbed by AppleInsider, this isn’t quite the case.

Apple’s point-of-sale touches take advantage of OS 3.0’s hardware accessory support a lot. Each one will be wrapped in a large plastic case, which includes a barcode scanner up top and a card reader slot in the side, as well as an extra battery. The whole assemblage — iPod included — is powered through a mini USB port. Naturally, sales will be carried out with a custom iPhone app; not so naturally, credit card signatures need to be entered with a stylus, almost like you’re using Windows Mobile (OH GOD!). Or, you know, paper.

More pictures at [AppleInsider]

The pictured subway station is located on Halsted Street in Chicago, next to a future Apple store location. While Apple’s stipulation that the subway station renovations be completed by September 30, 2010 gives us a bit of a hunch as to when the store might open, it still remains a mystery exactly why the company is pouring so much money into prettying up a corner of Chicago. According to the agreement they’re not getting very much out of it:

[I]n exchange for the improvements the CTA will lease the bus turnaround to Apple at no cost for 10 years, with options on four, five-year extensions. The CTA will also give Apple “first rights of refusal” for naming the station and placing advertising within the station, if the CTA later decides to offer those rights.

Alright, and Apple intends on making that bus turnaround into a “landscaped public park”, so there’s no profit to be found there and the “first rights of refusal” are worthless if the CTA never actually decides to offer any of those advertising options and rights. It almost seems as if Apple’s doing this for the warm fuzzy feeling that comes out of doing something incredibly wonderful for a city’s development. I’m proud of you, Apple, but I still think Bill Gates is cooler for trying to cure malaria with lollies. [ifoAppleStore via MacRumors]

I generally try to avoid the Evil Geniuses at the Apple Store, but after waiting 45 minutes past your appointment you tend to take what you can get. [Landline TV]

Good old Stevesy runs pretty much the most profitable retail chain in the country, the Apple Store, and coincidentally also owns Pixar — and thus sits on Disney’s board. So he heavily consulted with Disney when they decided to totally redesign their retail store’s image, and it shows. From minor details like mobile checkout (employees carry small receipt printers on them) to bigger philosophies like community (there’ll be a small theatre, like in Apple Stores) and interactivity (karaoke, touchscreen kiosks, “live chat with Disney stars”), Steve’s fingerprints are all over the new concept. Hell, Disney store employees will even carry iPhones (or iPods Touch) to communicate. And that’s a good thing, in our opinion: Apple Stores certainly aren’t perfect, but they are a decidedly individual and interesting shopping experience, which Disney apparently needs. A Disney rep, apparently a fan of Fox angryface Gordon Ramsay, referred to some of the current stores as “a dog’s breakfast”.

Disney is rebooting 340 of these stores, with a possible flagship store in, of course, Times Square, and is spending about $US1 million to do it. They’re still working with real estate agents and ironing out the final details, but this could actually work out: Disney + Apple has previously equalled Pixar, and that formula has worked out pretty spectacularly. [NY Times]