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New York’s biggest Apple

Over the next few months a striking piece of symbolism will take place around the mightyGeneral Motors building on Fifth Avenue in New York. Apple, the tech group, plans to move outof the basement where it has operated a flagship store-cum-tourist attraction for the pastdecade, underneath a now-iconic glass cube.

在接下來數月內，極具象征意味的事情將發生在紐約第五大道(Fifth Avenue)上那座宏偉的通用汽車(GeneralMotors)大樓周圍�？萍季揠⑻O果(Apple)計劃將過去10年來游客經常造訪的那家旗艦店，從如今已成為地標的玻璃方屋下方的地下室中搬出。

The tech group will not be disappearing altogether from this prime site, tucked on thesoutheast corner of Central Park. Instead, it is renovating the basement to cope with soaringnumbers of visitors, and, later this year, it plans to move “temporarily” into a space on theground floor of the General Motors building next door.

這家科技集團并不會從這個緊鄰中央公園(Central Park)西南角的黃金地點徹底消失。相反，蘋果正在對這座地下室進行翻修，以應對日益增加的游客。今年晚些時候，蘋果計劃“暫時”搬進旁邊通用汽車大樓的一層。

In a neat twist of timing, FAO Schwarz, the equally iconic American toy store, has decided tovacate its flagship location in the GM building on July 15 “to realise meaningful rent savings” inthe face of “the continuing rising costs of operating a retail location on Fifth Avenue”. The storehas not yet revealed where its new home will be.

剛巧就在這個時候，同樣標志性的美國玩具店FAO Schwarz決定于7月15日將其位于通用汽車大樓內的旗艦店搬走。面對“在第五大道開設零售店成本持續上漲”，此舉是為了“實現重大租金節約”。該玩具店尚未公布新店地址。

So when tourists flock to Central Park this summer, they will no longer see stuffed animals,dolls, Lego and train sets — or the gigantic “floor piano” keyboard that Tom Hanks and RobertLoggia danced on in the 1988 movie Big (a film that helped to immortalise FAO Schwarz).Instead, the site will host piles of gleaming electronic gadgets — and the inevitable throng ofvisitors who pay pilgrimage around the clock. (Apparently, the store under the cube is notjust the busiest in the world but also the only Apple store that operates 24 hours a day, sevendays a week.)

因此，今年夏天當游客蜂擁至中央公園時，他們將不會再看見毛絨動物玩具、玩偶、樂高積木(Lego)以及火車模型，也不會再看見地板上的巨型“鋼琴”琴鍵——在1988年的電影《飛向未來》(Big)中，湯姆•漢克斯(TomHanks)和羅伯特•洛賈(Robert Loggia)就是在這個地面琴鍵上跳舞(這部電影讓FAO Schwarz在人們心中留下了難以磨滅的印象)。取而代之的是，那里將會擺滿成堆閃閃發光的電子小玩意——游客也必然會成群結對，不分晝夜地前來“朝圣”。(顯然，玻璃方屋下面的蘋果旗艦店不僅是世界上生意最忙碌的，還是唯一的每周7天無休、24小時全天候營業的蘋果店。)

Now, in one sense this rental dance is nothing new. As the journalist Vicky Ward recounts inher book, The Liar’s Ball (which tells the history of the GM building and which is about to bemade into a Hollywood film), this site has already seen endless commercial flux. Businessempires have risen and fallen there at startling speed. Indeed, one of the great (and little-known) ironies about that famous glass cube is that the man who first dreamt up the idea,Harry Macklowe, the real estate titan who owned the GM building, actually went bankrupt(before later rebounding).

眼下，從某種意義而言，這種租戶更迭沒什么新鮮的。正如記者薇姬•沃德(Vicky Ward)在她的書《騙子的皮球》(The Liar’s Ball)中敘述的那樣，這個地點已經見證了數不盡的商業變遷。(該書講述了通用汽車大樓的歷史，即將被拍攝成為好萊塢電影。)在這座大樓中，商業帝國以驚人的速度崛起和沒落。事實上，關于那座著名玻璃方屋極具諷刺意味(且鮮為人知)的一點是，最初設計出這個想法的人——房地產大亨、通用汽車大樓曾經的所有者——哈里•麥克洛(Harry Macklowe)實際上破產了(后來東山再起)。

To my mind, this switch of retail outlets speaks to far more than just the vagaries of NY realestate. After all, FAO Schwarz is not just any old toy store: in recent decades it epitomised a20th-century style of kiddie consumer dream, which, of course, is why families have long flockedthere to stare at the goodies — and that famous piano.

在我看來，零售店的轉變所體現的遠不止是紐約房地產市場的變幻莫測。畢竟，FAO Schwarz并不是普通的老牌玩具店：最近數十年，它象征的是20世紀兒童消費者的夢想，當然，這也是長久以來很多家庭蜂擁至此，凝視那些玩具和那臺著名鋼琴的原因。

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.

最近幾十年，就像那么多20世紀美國的標志性物品一樣，那座光芒閃耀的店鋪流露出一種衰敗的味道。這是因為，盡管游客成群結隊地走進這家商店，但他們在這里花的錢卻一直無法達到FAO Schwarz的所有者——玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)——需要的水平。如今，家長往往要不就在經濟型低端商店(比如沃爾瑪(Walmart))，要不就在高端精品店(比如美國女孩(American Girl))里購買玩具。中端商店受到擠壓——使得其很難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.)

但是在蘋果的玻璃方屋下，消費者不僅是成群結隊地來，同時也會大筆花錢——盡管購物體驗本身通常很糟糕。(最近我自己前往那家店購買一部新的iPhone手機，發現店內如此擁擠，店員也如此短缺，感覺就像到了商店版第七層地獄。)

Indeed, sales are so high that Mort Zuckerman, the current owner of the GM building, isquoted in The Liar’s Ball as saying that “whenever I want to cheer myself up I just take a walkaround the Apple Store”.

事實上，這家店的銷售額極高，以至于通用汽車大樓目前的所有者莫特•祖克曼(Mort Zuckerman)(援引于《騙子的皮球》一書)曾表示，“每當我想讓自己開心起來時，我就會在蘋果店周圍逛逛。”

At the beginning of this decade the store was making “$665m a year for 10,000 square feet”of space “in a windowless basement”. Undoubtedly it is dramatically more today; in fact, somewell-placed insiders suspect that if anyone could get comparable public data on sales persquare foot from retailers around the world (which is all but impossible), Apple’s glass cubewould be the most profitable retail outlet in the world.

在2010年代初，這家“位于地下、連個窗戶都沒有的”蘋果店“1萬平方英尺面積每年能創造6.65億美元的銷售額”。毫無疑問，如今這個數字肯定高得多;事實上，一些知情人士認為，如果有人能得到全球各地零售店每平方英尺銷售額的可比公開數據，可能會發現蘋果的玻璃方屋是全世界最賺錢的零售店。

Perhaps this is just another passing fad, like the FAO Schwarz floor piano. As the history of theGM building proves, business fortunes swing faster than anyone can imagine. In anothercouple of decades we may find it utterly bizarre to think that anyone ever wanted to go into awindowless basement with hundreds of others to buy an iPhone. Least of all treat it as atourist attraction.

也許這只是另一次短暫的熱潮，就像FAO Schwarz的地面鋼琴一樣。正如通用汽車大樓的歷史所證明的那樣，企業命運跌宕起伏，速度之快超出所有人的想象。再過幾十年，我們也許會感到難以置信：居然有人想要去一間連窗戶都沒有的地下室，和數百名其他顧客擠在一起，只為購買一部iPhone。更別提還把它當作一個游覽勝地。

Right now, I will be watching curiously to see what Angela Ahrendts, the ultra-stylish designqueen at Apple, does with that cube. Like it or not, it has now become a powerful symbol ofour modern age, a time where kids (and adults) still love to buy “toys” — just not quite thetype of toys our parents flocked to in the past.

現如今，我將會饒有興趣地期待蘋果超級時尚的設計女王安杰拉•阿倫茨(Angela Ahrendts)對那個玻璃方屋的改造。無論你喜歡與否，這個玻璃方屋已經成了我們當今時代的有力符號。在這個時代，孩子(和大人)仍然喜愛買“玩具”——只不過跟過去我們的父母愛買的玩具類型不太一樣罷了。