You can say a lot about Apple—it brought smartphones and personal computers to the mass market, it changed the technology industry forever, it was controlled by a megalomaniacal asshole for much of its existence—but you’d have a hard time getting even the staunchest critic of the company to argue its products weren’t…

Earlier this year, three individuals stole a total of 67 iPhones from an Upper West Side Apple store. Last week, 19 more iPhones were snatched from a SoHo store. How could these criminals possibly infiltrate the impenetrable security of a retail store run by certifiable geniuses? By dressing like Apple store…

Apple opened its first brick-and-mortar store back in 2001, and they've spread to pretty much everywhere since, as you can see in this animated map from Business Insider. Is there anywhere you can go where there isn't an Apple Store nearby?

The Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan? You know the one—it cost $6.7 million to build. Yesterday, a snowblower smashed one of its 15 seamless glass panels, which created this beautiful cracked vignette of New York City. It looks like a painting.

Along with retail masters Mickey Drexler—then Gap's CEO—and Ron Johnson, Steve Jobs created the Apple Stores in 2001. They wanted consumer heavens in which everything, from the space to the body language of the salespeople, is carefully designed to work people into buying a brand, its products and "happiness."

An Apple employee is never supposed to point when giving directions in their store. For example, when asked where the iPhone cases are sold, a specialist should either gesture with an open hand or, preferably, walk the customer to the proper location.

Here's a fun game: archeological dig or building a new Apple Store? In at least one case, the answer is both. In what's supposed to be the basement of a new Apple Store in Madrid, workers have uncovered a 15th century hospital.

Just the other day, Apple announced that you can now get your smashed iPhone screen fixed in-store for the low (?) cost of $150, with or without AppleCare. This is the machine that lets them do it.

We all know Apple stores are wildly successful. But how successful? When comparing the revenue-per-square-foot of Apple's retail hub to any other business, Apple generates more cash from sales by an average factor of 17.

Apple Stores, those atom bomb-lit, alabaster opium dens of consumer electronics—they are everywhere. From suburban Virginia to Paris, Apple's retail tentacles are wrapped around our thighs, swinging iPads back and forth. Let's explore them all at warp speed.

After authorities from the Chinese city of Kunming discovered 22 retail shops illegally masquerading as Apple stores and Apple filed a complaint, all 22 of those shops made their Apple branding vanish.

The bright, friendly facade of the Apple store hides some weird stuff, according to current and former employees. Porn-stuffed laptops, positivity police, and an anti-gossip gestapo: Welcome to the real Apple Store.

For better or worse, Apple's retail locations are becoming as much of a cultural institution as their products. More people visit Apple Stores each year than the four Disney theme parks. What's the secret to their success? According to the Wall Street journal, it's simply just giving a shit about the customer.

Ah, Apple stores, gleaming temples of consumption. So bright and airy, filled with friendly, clean-cut geeks. A little too friendly, if you ask us. What's the secret? A ban on negativity.

Another day, another distressing story of ninja crime. A new report of stealthy artifice comes out of Greensboro, North Carolina, when a would-be Shinobi attempted to purloin some iPads from an Apple Store last Friday.