Well, we don't have any actual sales figures to go by, yet, but if anecdotal evidence holds any weight, Apple probably made a wise decision keeping its three Massachusetts retail stores open during all twenty-four hours of the state's first ever sales tax holiday. The Boston Globe quotes the CambridgeSide manager as saying that they "had a huge crowd at midnight, and people were buying throughout the night," and had the stores not absorbed some of the buying frenzy in the wee hours of the morning, they would likely have been throttled to death by crazed shoppers once regular store hours had rolled around. How do we know? Because we were there. And there, and there.

Yes, we did something a little bizarre. See, originally we just thought it would be cool to go Mac shopping at 3 AM, which is a convenience we probably won't get to experience very often. But as the day approached, we got to thinking about the staff who'd have to contend with throngs of sleep-deprived shoppers while fighting sleep deprivation themselves. And while we're up working at 3 AM just about every night, we're guessing that most of the Apple Store staff is usually tucked away safely in bed at that hour. Staying up all night is not an easy thing to do, especially if you're not used to it, and we figured their efforts would probably also go somewhat underappreciated by most of the shoppers. How, we wondered, could we ease the plight of these unseasoned graveyard shift compatriots?

The answer came to us in a flash: cookies. Fresh-baked, homemade cookies. For all three stores.

Okay, sure, in hindsight it was exactly the kind of harebrained scheme that typically arises because of sleep deprivation, but it seemed to make sense at the time. So, Friday afternoon we squeezed in a frantic ingredients run, Friday evening consisted of a frenzy of baking that resulted in four batches of our patented chocolate chip pancake cookies (oh, right, like we weren't going to bake a batch for us while we were at it), and once the clocks ticked over to 11:30 PM, we were ready to roll-- or, rather, Jack was ready to roll while Katie and Anya filled in on sleep detail. With three batches of cookies in the trunk of the AtATmobile, Jack's real evening started at the Apple Store CambridgeSide, at which he arrived right at midnight as the doors were opening for twenty-four hours of tax-free fun.

Surprise number one: for some reason, we figured that there'd be maybe three or four people working overnight, with perhaps five or six crazy late-night customers waiting to get in, tops. Nuh-uh. As the Globe hinted, there were enough people clustered around outside to qualify as a bona fide throng, and Apple was evidently smart enough to anticipate that, because there were at least a dozen blue-shirted staff members inside waiting to embrace the insanity. (We learned later that Apple had even flown in some temporary help from Pennsylvania.) Sadly, it seemed unlikely that our dozen cookies were going to go very far.

We'll spare you most of the details of what followed, but suffice it to say that, given the size of the crowd, those dozen-plus staff members were all working at 90 mph from the get-go and things didn't slow down until maybe 2 AM or so. Jack met up with AtAT buddy Nick, who had served AtAT from his own personal DSL line for a couple of weeks way back during our own D-S-HELL saga; he was in the market for a new eMac to replace an aging iMac Special Edition (which, with its G3 processor, wouldn't play GarageBand software instruments). We can paint a decent enough picture of the craziness just by mentioning that we spent about 45 minutes in line to pay for it. IDOKnowJack from the AtAT Forums got off slightly easier, since iPods were rung up at a second point of purchase in the back of the store where the line was moving a little more quickly.

At about twoish or so, having successfully delivered a woefully insufficient number of cookies into the hands of the CambridgeSide store staff, Jack headed back to the AtATmobile, onto Storrow drive, and through the Fenway out to Route 9 and the Chestnut Hill Mall. Once again, he was faced with far more activity than expected; even at 2:30 AM, the lines at the registers were stretched halfway through the store, and the activity didn't die down much until about 4 AM-- and people were still coming in. They were primarily students, it seemed, most of whom were probably coming from nearby Boston College; a few were drunk, and at least one was barefoot, but they all wanted Macs, or as one particular customer put it, "I need one of those laptops, the Power thing with the Super?" Anyone who can put up with that type of customer at 4 AM without grabbing a baseball bat is a saint. Jack dropped off Cookie Batch #2 (this time, rather more appropriate for the smaller store and staff count) and then headed out for the final stop of the night.

About a mile or two from Chestnut Hill, Route 9 connects right up with 128, which dumps you right at the Northshore Mall if you follow it north for about half an hour or so. With the Ghettobillies' Bootlegs album feeding a steady stream of wakefulness from a trusty first-generation iPod, Jack eventually reached the mall, found the single super-secret unlocked door sneakily hidden sideways next to Joe's American Bar & Grill, and waltzed into the Apple Store Northshore at 5 AM on the dot.

Now this was more what we had expected at all three stores as early as 1 AM: only three or four people on duty, zero customers, and even the mall security guard hanging out inside, watching Star Wars Episode II on the theater screen. According to the staff, things had been busy, but this far out in the 'burbs, apparently there were far fewer people willing to shop much past 3 AM or so. And so the final cookie delivery of the night was a mellow affair, spent quietly checking out iPod accessories and watching QuickTime movie trailers with the staff. At about 5:30 AM the first customer on the daylight side of the morning came in, an elderly gentleman who bought two 20 GB iPods and then went on his merry way. At 6 AM, Jack did the same. (The merry way part, not the iPods part. Unfortunately.)

We're guessing that Northshore's business probably picked up again with the breakfast crowd, and the other two stores probably experienced the same. We can't say for sure, though, because Jack was long gone by then. We also don't know if the cookies helped a bit, or were even eaten at all. All we do know is that all three stores moved a lot of Macs and iPods that night-- and that if it wasn't Jack's first time going to three malls in a single day, it was definitely his first time going to three malls in a single day before 5 AM.

We close on a semi-interesting side note: we'd never been in a single retail store-- Apple or otherwise-- that had ever had iPod minis in stock. And yet on this whirlwind tour of Apple's Massachusetts retail properties, all three stores had them on the shelves; Northshore had a handful, CambridgeSide had literally dozens (although pink ones had sold out), and Chestnut Hill only had three left (all green), but they were there and ready to buy. So apparently the era has finally come when, if you want to buy an iPod mini, you very well might be able to do so without spending three months on a waiting list or having to stake out the store's loading dock all week to commit something akin to armed robbery. Plan accordingly.

Oh, and Steve Jobs: if you want a batch of cookies, just ask. Yes, they're vegan, and yes, we'll FedEx 'em cross-country if you think they'll speed your recovery. And really, what problem can't be fixed by chocolate?