Minneapolis--St.Paul, Minnesota is a beautiful metropolitan area: great schools, great health care, sophisticated and a very urban area. Venture outside of Minneapolis- St. Paul and one finds a state that boasts as its motto "The land of 10,000 lakes." Minnesota is indeed a beautiful and diverse state.

The biggest tourist attraction of the last decade is the Great Mall of America. With more than 400 stores and a theme park occupying the middle, the Mall attracts visitors from the other 49 states and from around the world. Use to be Northwest Airlines, headquartered in Minneapolis, would sponsor charter flights from Europe and Japan for shoppers to visit and spend Yen and Euros at the Mall.

The Twin Cities is also a major corporate headquarter city with the likes of 3M (NYSE: MMM), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), US Bank (NYSE: USB), General Mills (NYSE: GIS) and many others. The Minneapolis-St.Paul Airport is a major hub in the U.S. with Northwest Airlines as its principle occupant.

But all of that pales before "The Bathroom."

Continue reading 10,000 lakes and one famous bathroom

10,000 lakes and one famous bathroom originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota is the biggest shopping mall in the United States. It ranks in the top three world-wide. The Mall of America is a five- minute drive from the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport and many a traveler with a few hours of layover will catch the every ten-minute shuttle bus to the Mall. The Mall of America draws people from the 50 states and from over 100 countries. The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) retail store at the Mall is large and very busy.

I stopped by the Mall late this morning and extra security was present to manage the throngs sitting outside the Apple store. I was able to walk into the store easily as I was not in line for the iPhone--not yet at least--and wanted to speak with the sales staff.The store was buzzing and the staff ready and able to answer any and all iPhone questions. They expect record traffic beginning tonight at 6pm when the iPhone is officially available.

The sales associate I spoke too, John, told me he has never been this excited and was a little nervous. When I asked him how many units the Mall of America had in its initial inventory, John went stone silent. I pressed and he said he was not allowed to say. But he did say they had enough to get through the first two weeks. He went on to say that the staff is already figuring out the first two days sales expectations and will order more units from headquarters by this Monday.

Continue reading Apple iPhone update from the Mall of America

Apple iPhone update from the Mall of America originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 12:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.