[jballanc]

The coolest experience I had as an Apple Store Employee was saving Christmas...no really, we literally saved Christmas. It was about 1:30 AM on Dec. 25th, and a man comes in to the store out of breath. He needs two iPod nanos. "My wife thought I was getting them, and I thought she was getting them..." he explained. Not a problem. We got the nanos, and sent him on his way.

That was fun...

[artursapek]

Wow, Apple Stores stay open that late on Christmas? They stay open that late at all?

[jballanc]

I worked the overnight shift at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. I got to spend two Christmas mornings (and two New Years Eves) in a row with some of the best people I've ever worked with...hell, some of the best people I've ever met!

[nsp]

When were you there? I worked twilight shift fall 11 - spring 12 at 5th ave

[jballanc]

I was actually part of the store opening crew. Worked there March '06 to May '08, but I'll bet you worked with some of my good friends.

[artursapek]

Wow. NYC brings enough traffic in the middle of the night that it stays open, huh.

[acchow]

I think of it as a public service: you're working on your Operating Systems assignment at 1am and discover your AC adapter has malfunctioned and you have 5% of battery left.

24/7 Apple Store. They're doing god's work.

[hnriot]

You borrow one if the 5 million other AC adapters on your dorm floor...

[lostlogin]

Special thanks to the new MagSafe - this is no longer possible (short term anyway).

[Cthulhu_]

I was under the impression that pretty much all of the major US cities were 24/7 economies, with store times matching up.

[randallsquared]

Here's a tidbit that might entertain, then: in densely populated suburbs, you're less likely to find what you need at 3am than in small-town America (at least, in the rural South). That's because Walmart is typically open 24 hours, and Walmart in rural areas has essentially everything that's not very specialized.

Upon moving from such a place to the suburbs of DC, I was dismayed to find that finding a store open at 3am was actually more difficult than in the hinterlands.

[protomyth]

No doubt. When I moved to Minneapolis, MN from ND, I was constantly amazed at how little is open in the early AM. Heck, even the fast food places closed early[1]. ND small town is more 24hr than the cities.

1) and what unholy foolishness of closing offsale at 8pm on weekdays, 9pm Fri and Sat, and closed all day Sun. WTF? "Backwards" ND has Sunday offsale.

[artursapek]

Not really. I think NYC is the main city that doesn't sleep. Other large cities I've been to like Seattle get pretty dead late at night. The town I go to school in, Providence, even has a 2am business curfew.

[lilsunnybee]

Is it really worth not letting employees be with their families on Christmas so a forgetful dad doesn't have to wait an extra day to buy mp3 players for his children? Is cheap electronic shit really more important than allowing people to spend time with loved ones?

[jetti]

You know that not everybody observes or cares to celebrate Christmas right? When I worked at a movie theater I loved working Christmas because it was easy money and I didn't care about the holiday, I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[rdl]

I love working on Christmas, since I don't really celebrate -- if I'm working, then other people don't have to, and I get paid a premium. The Christmas-New Years week is basically the most productive period in the world, followed closely by Burning Man week.

Thanksgiving, in the US, has more market penetration than Christmas. Yet, there's the huge Black Friday shopping thing, so stores pay people extra to set up on Thursday too.

[acchow]

Oh Black Friday.

"Only in America do you celebrate being thankful for everything you have on Thursday so you can go buy more shit on Friday" -Some wise netizen (a paraphrase).