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Apple Issues Statement Following Resolved Hostage Situation At Amsterdam Store
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And technically he got the safe exit from the Apple Store he was demanding - he was hit perhaps 50 feet outside. Monkey paw and all that.
I'm going to venture a guess that the windows weren't designed to be bulletproof, but rather to thwart anyone who wants to throw, say, a trash can through one so they can run inside and grab shiny products (a literal smash and grab).
Paying to replace a partially broken window is probably cheaper than losing several dozen Macs and iPhones (and word might get around the criminal community that that doesn't work, saving future windows).
but he is believed to have acted alone.
Who wants to work with such a mentally disturbed person?
Who wants to work with such a mentally disturbed person?
Yes and no. Technically, there's one flagship per group. But that depends on how you define which group you are talking about. You could have the Netherlands flagship, or the Amsterdam flagship.
If he'd tried this in a Microsoft store they would have said "look, we'll pay anything, just stay in the store!!"
Heh - really? Ok - please provide the published document where Apple refers to one of their stores in each country as a "flagship" store.
A flagship literally is the ship in a fleet or naval group that carries the commanding admiral. Before radio, when orders to the other ships could only be conveyed by visual signal, the commander's flag indicated to which ship the other ships would look for orders. If a flagship was no longer viable (and the commander still capable of command), the command would move to another ship, raising the commander's flag upon arrival.Heh - really? Ok - please provide the published document where Apple refers to one of their stores in each country as a "flagship" store.
So no, a flagship is not necessarily the first store in an entire worldwide chain. Typically, there are group managers for cities, regions, even parts of cities, depending on the size of the enterprise. So if we were to follow military tradition, the store hosting the local group's management could be considered the flagship store for that group.
More typically, "flagship store" tends to refer to a particularly large and architecturally impressive location, just as military flagships are typically the largest and most impressive in the fleet/group.
Definition of FLAGSHIP
the ship that carries the commander of a fleet or subdivision of a fleet and flies the commander's flag; the finest, largest, or most important one of a group of things (such as products, stores, etc.) —often used before another noun… See the full definition
www.merriam-webster.com
It's being over-used - which diminishes its meaning.
Much like waterproof, when referring to phones. None of them are - they're water resistant.
The hostage taker had explosives on him, not armed though, it was confirmed by the police.
Apple has praised Dutch police as well as customers and staff at an Amsterdam store where a hostage situation yesterday came to a close with no injuries to the public and the suspect detained in custody.
In a statement obtained by TechCrunch, Apple said that all employees and customers are safe after the "terrifying experience" at Apple Amsterdam in Leidseplein on Tuesday.
The statement came hours after local police resolved the hostage situation at the flagship store, which saw a man in camouflage gear and a balaclava fire a gun at least four times and then hold at least one person hostage for several hours before being apprehended.
A photo shared by local newspaper Het Parool showed the hostage taker sitting opposite the hostage, who appeared handcuffed with his hands behind his back. Several other people were also reported to have been inside when the incident began, but managed to escape unharmed.
The attack, which lasted from around 5:30 p.m. local time until 10:45 p.m., saw the store cordoned off and people in surrounding buildings ordered to stay indoors. According to police, the hostage-taker contacted authorities during the incident and demanded 200 million euros ($227 million) in cryptocurrency and a safe exit from the Apple store.
AT5 Echt Amsterdams Nieuws reported that the standoff came to an end when the hostage-taker requested water which was taken into the store by a robot, at which point the hostage attempted to run to safety. As the suspect chased after the hostage, police on the scene hit the running suspect with an armored BMW X5 and then checked him for explosives using a robot, which confirmed none were present.
According to the police, the suspect is a 27-year-old Amsterdam resident who sent selfies to the local press during the incident that appeared to show him wearing a bomb vest. The suspect was in possession of both an automatic weapon and a handgun. It's still unknown what prompted the incident, but he is believed to have acted alone.
Article Link: Apple Issues Statement Following Resolved Hostage Situation At Amsterdam Store
****! That running away bit was quite a significant risk. Things could have gone very wrong!
It is the first in The Netherlands, and architecturally, actually miles ahead of the actual first, flagship store, in a shopping mall in McLean, VA.
I've been to both, many times.
If you get the chance, you should visit.
The Amsterdam location is at one of the freeest locations on the planet when it comes to civil liberties... If we cannot freely and safely go into an Apple Store (a kind of Disneyland), without this absurd risk then perhaps things should change.
I walk into that store, my friends walk into that sttore, my friends work in that store and work in the Apple offices above the store, my *son* goes into that store...
I'm upset that this happened, and especially so because a whack job who does this *at that location*??? This just sucks.
You can’t… only those in the criminal circuit tend to have guns. Or the police, of course.
I'd argue there's no equivalence at all between "flagship" and "waterproof."Definition of FLAGSHIP
the ship that carries the commander of a fleet or subdivision of a fleet and flies the commander's flag; the finest, largest, or most important one of a group of things (such as products, stores, etc.) —often used before another noun… See the full definition
It's being over-used - which diminishes its meaning.
Much like waterproof, when referring to phones. None of them are - they're water resistant.
Waterproof and water resistant are often legally-defined terms (depends, of course, on consumer laws from country to country). The manufacturer of a product is very careful to define its claim of "waterproof" or "water resistant." Despite that, some people use the terms interchangeably, regardless of what the manufacturer claims. They're either not reading carefully, or intentionally interchanging the terms to suit a rhetorical purpose. When reading media coverage, reporters are also careful to use the correct term - it's the kind of thing fact-checkers (when employed) care about.
Flagship in military terms is very specific. Certainly some sub-commander within a battle group would not call their ship a flagship if their commanding officer was on another vessel in the same battle group. You don't mess with the military chain of command.
But we're talking about retailing here. There are no hard-and-fast rules for "flagship." No consumer protection laws, no lawsuits. "Today a class-action lawsuit was filed in a New York court claiming consumers were defrauded by the use of "flagship" to describe an utterly ordinary retail location. Plaintiffs are seeking damages equal to the cost of gas, parking, tolls and travel time, plus unspecified 'pain and suffering' for the disappointment of finding the store to be totally boring."
And while my earlier post mentioned the possible presence of a group/area manager, that's not a requirement. The public is rarely going to know where a group manager happens to hang their hat (you won't find a plaque or flag hanging in a store to denote the presence of higher management), and that manager's location barely matters to the conduct of daily business. An area manager could just as well be in an office building far removed from the retail locations they supervise.
In retailing the term is generally used (and almost entirely by the press, not the retailer) to denote stores within the chain that are larger/more grand and/or offer a wider range of merchandise than the typical store in the chain. Retailers press releases use "flagship" as shorthand to tell the press that a particular location is more worthy of press coverage than the typical store, and to signal to the public that a visit to that store will be special in some way. So the pre-opening press releases/publicity identify stores as "flagship." Afterwards the term may creep into the occasional press release, but for the most part it's the press and public that perpetuate the designation.
That's certainly true in Apple's case. If you were to use the Locate a Store links at Apple.com you won't find the term "flagship" anywhere. However, if you were to search MacRumors, the articles (including this one) dutifully mention "flagship" when describing those big, urban stores in upscale shopping districts, nearly all of which have special architectural merit (because Apple certainly does put a lot of money into making those stores especially grand). It's a useful adjective - one word that implies (in the case of this news story) that the hostage-taker targeted this particular store because of it's status (which, of course, draws more interest from the media and public due to its prominence).
"Marketing" and "over-use of superlatives" will always go hand-in-hand, but if you're going to rail about over-use of a term like "flagship"... Just what is the harm?