Lewis, you talked about unique items that are provided or carried by Apple Market as opposed to the big chain stores, does their community strategy include selling products from the local farmers and producers? This type of relationship building not only supports the bottom line it provides direct interaction with their community on a level that the big chains retailers often forget.
Customer service is a goal for all companies it would seem that organizations size has a direct impact on the time delta for customer complaint resolutions. I like most people perceive the big chain stores customer service lacks honesty, whereby the loss of one customer in the big picture does not seem to matter. The opposite is the case with the neighborhood-oriented