Another weekend, another shiny new Apple retail store... but, of course, this latest one's special to us, because it's going to be the AtAT staff's "local" location for a few months at least. For those of you who haven't been keeping up with the blow-by-blow of Apple's retail initiative (yeah, as if you've got better things to do... but we'll pretend for your sake), tomorrow's grand opening at the Northshore Mall in Peabody, Massachusetts marks the sixth such boutique to open its doors this year. It's also special to us because, while it won't be our first Apple store grand opening, at least we don't have to fly 900 miles to get to this one. Frequent flyer miles are nice and all, but so is not having to fly over five states and risk the unlikely event of a water landing just to go shopping.

So, instead of shelling out several hundred bucks for round-trip airfare, a hotel room, and a car rental like we did to go to the Woodfield store last weekend, tomorrow all we'll have to pay is the cost of the gas to drive the fifty-ish miles there and back-- which, of course, makes the prospect of buying something at the Apple Store a much more reasonable scenario, financially speaking. For example, if you take travel expenses into account, by our calculations, that copy of American McGee's Alice that we bought at Woodfield last week cost us about $900 all told, which is rather higher than the going rate. On the other hand, it did come with a free t-shirt, an Apple notebook, and a cool blue bag, so far be it from us to complain.

So if you're in the New England area and you're making the hike to Peabody tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled for the AtAT staff, because we'll be there-- and with any luck, in a slightly less sleep-deprived state than at last week's gig. If you say hi and your fawning and toadying is acceptably sycophantic, you may just find yourself the proud owner of a snazzy new AtAT sticker, suitable for bronzing and eternal worship (but even more suitable for slapping on a personal possession in a conspicuous location, thus unwittingly providing us with free advertising). We'll probably have some t-shirts, too, but those aren't going to be free, so if you want one, make sure you have cash on hand. If you do go tomorrow, this is the twitchy-looking individual you're looking for. It's wise to avoid direct eye contact and making any sudden movements.

Meanwhile, as faithful viewer Dave points out, next Saturday marks the opening of lucky store number seven-- at the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio, so all you Ohio-area Mac fans should start practicing your waiting-in-line skills now. Sadly, the AtAT staff has no plans to drag their worthless hides all the way back to the Midwest for yet another grand opening-- at least, not unless Apple wants to pay our way as a sort of travelling sideshow freak exhibit to draw more foot traffic. But we're game if they are...