That’s a handy way to describe the zone around the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. As you can see from the photos, folks were getting pretty ragged by Friday afternoon.

Then there was Imran Khan, the entrepreneur who tried to sell his seat in line. He said his best offer was $4,500 when we talked to him earlier on Friday. He was holding out for the big money, last we checked.

Jennifer Mendlowitz, meanwhile, brought her Maltese, Emma, and the Princess Diana biography by Tina Brown. Emma turns four next week!

Online sales of beauty products makes up four percent of sales in the more than $42 billion business  — and are growing fast, according to a consumer research report.
 
One in ten women said they hit the Web for their skin care, makeup and perfume needs, according to a report titled “Emerging Channels: Beauty Care Products Over the Internet” by retail research firm NPD Group. More than 15,00 women were survey.
 
Forty three percent of them said they shopped more online in 2006 than in 2005.
 
Why? Because it sure beats standing in lines at stores.
 
More than 74 percent of these women, aged between 18 and 64, said it saved time while about 70 percent thought “its easier/quicker to shop online.”
 
That said, only their trusted brands enjoy good online sales, said NPD senior beauty analyst Karen Grant.
 
“We find that women are less accepting of buying new brands over the Internet, but they are spending their money on brands they know and trust,” Grant said.
 
That could spell good news for beauty companies like Estee Lauder  and Elizabeth Arden, which have said they felt a continuing pinch in U.S. sales following the Macy’s/May Department stores mergers.
 
In the past quarter, Estee said positive internet sales were partly responsible for offsetting weak U.S. sales.
 
Fifteen percent of women in the $75,000 and over range shopped beauty online, compared to 10 percent in the $35,000 to $44,000 category and 7 percent in households that make less than $35,000.
 
And “baby boomer” women — those aged between 45 and 64 — shop the most online, followed by those who are in the 18 to 34 age range, according to the survey.

 – Written by Aarthi Sivaraman

Here’s a tip — if you only want one iPhone, and don’t care to wrestle with a giant blue-nosed mole (on the far right), head to an AT&T store.

So far it appears that Apple stores are developing into local meccas of the Apple faithful, the media savvy and those with lots of time on their hands. On the other hand, AT&T stores, where the phone will also begin sales at 6 P.M. locally, are well, home to the lonely.

At around 7 a.m. this morning in midtown Manhattan, here (above) is the Apple store, with a line 200 deep, not including at least 6 TV news trucks, an army of reporters and one, um, giant… animal…thing:

Contrast that with the handful of iPhone hopefuls at AT&T’s store in Times Square (below), so-called, “crossroads of the world.”

Contrast that with another AT&T store, on Manhattan’s ritzy Park Ave., where of the 5 men waiting on line at 7 AM EDT, none planned to keep the iPhone. Oddly enough, the first guy on line, Steve Millei, 35 (below, on far right) — there holding a place for a friend — said: “I don’t want one. I like the Nokia phones better.”

Read Reuters full coverage of the iPhone launch, with pictures, video and more, here.

Will you buy an iPhone? Tell us why, here.

Gizmodo, in a kind of music video post — replete with Public Enemy’s “Don’t Believe the Hype”, notes that the other media story of this media phone is, well, the swarm of media covering the launch.  

Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. has hired Lehman Brothers to help evaluate strategic options.

Maxine Clark, chief executive bear, said the company will continue to implement its strategy of expansion, but also said Build-A-Bear had an obligation to shareholders to consider a broad range of potential strategic alternatives.

That’s right. Chief Executive Bear. That is Clark’s official title in company press releases and on the company’s web site. (Actually, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Bear to be precise.) The company also has a Chief Workshop Bear, Chief Information Bear, Chief Financial Bear, Chief Marketing Bear and Chief Operating Bear.
While those titles may work as part of the internal culture for a retailer centered around teddy bears, they might convey a different message on Wall Street, said Laura Hartman, professor of business ethics at DePaul University’s College of Commerce.

” ‘Chief Executive Bear’ is not a very aggressive role within the business community,” Hartman said when asked about how corporate cultures can be perceived.

“When you create a corporate culture, once you create it, you do not have complete control over how is perceived,” Hartman said. She noted that a bear could be perceived as too soft and even hibernating.

Build-A-Bear did not return a call to the World Bear-quarters (that’s what the voice message said) for comment on the corporate culture and Bear titles.

Just because they shop at a store known for its convenient locations rather than low prices doesn’t mean cash-strapped consumers aren’t looking for a bargain.
 
Rite Aid said on Thursday that its customers sought out more general merchandise that was on sale in the latest quarter compared with a year earlier. The company did not change its promotions, customers just bought more items that were on sale.
 
That tidbit from Chairman, President and Chief Executive Mary Sammons during Rite Aid’s fiscal first-quarter conference call sparked interest. The first analyst to ask a question on the company’s conference call asked for more detail on the issue.

“They are just buying more economically and I think it’s undoubtedly related to their economic condition and the cost of fuel, etcetera,” Sammons said.
 
She also said that Rite Aid saw customers buying more products at promotional prices throughout last year.
 
Rite Aid’s sales of general merchandise at stores open at least a year rose just 1.6 percent in the fiscal first quarter after rising 2.1 percent a year earlier and just 1.2 percent in the company’s fiscal fourth quarter.
 
Larger rival Walgreen’s same-store sales of general merchandise rose 5.6 percent in its quarter ended May 31, and such sales rose 6.6 percent in the latest full quarter over at CVS, which ended on March 31.

    If you think you’ve seen more and more Chuck Taylor All Stars on more and more feet, you’re not crazy.
    Nike Inc. Chief Executive Mark Parker said during an earnings conference call on Tuesday that its Converse subsidiary — known for the classic canvas high-top basketball sneaker — saw 23 percent growth this past fiscal year.
    Chuck would be proud. All that growth is coming from not only shoes, but jackets, pants, shorts and T-shirts, too.  Shoppers can even customize their own shoes. 
    A Converse store on London’s swinging Carnaby Street has just opened, and the 100th anniversary of the Converse brand next year will be celebrated with “special concepts,” Parker promised.
    “Clearly we see Converse continuing to deliver strong growth,” he said.
    In other Nike news, the company said it planned to take over its apparel license in Brazil from its licensee in fiscal 2008.
    Nike Brand President Charlie Denson told analysts he was “very optimistic” about that new distribution model.
    And you thought they only wore thongs in Brazil…

Do grocers believe in Peter Pan peanut butter? 
 
To hear ConAgra Foods tell it, retailers are clapping their hands for the return of Peter Pan in late July, five months after it was pulled from store shelves because of a salmonella outbreak linked to the company’s Sylvester, Georgia, plant where the peanut butter was made.
 
ConAgra is building up inventory ahead of the relaunch late next month, Chief Executive Gary Rodkin said.

“We’ve had terrific response for our customers who, in many cases … have left the shelf open, basically, for us to come back,” Rodkin said while talking about the company’s fourth-quarter earnings and prospects for fiscal year 2008.

ConAgra said costs associated with the relaunch and lower planned sales volume are expected to cut about 5 cents a share from 2008 earnings.

When it comes to paying more for gas, consumers would rather sacrifice nonessentials than use alternative transportation, according a survey conducted by Morgan Stanley’s Discover Financial Services.

If gas prices increase by $1: 

• 70 percent of car owners said they would cut back on entertainment spending
• 66 percent said they would change their vacation plans 
• 64 percent said they would postpone a major purchase

Less than one in four (24 percent) said they were somewhat likely or very likely to take public transportation. Sixty-one percent were not very or at not all likely to walk or ride a bicycle, the survey reported.
 
Fifty-two percent of those polled said they were somewhat or very likely to cut back on grocery spending if gas prices rise by $1.
 
The average price for regular unleaded was $3.14 at the time of the survey.

-Written by Regan E. Doherty

That might be what Limited Brands Inc. Chief Executive Leslie Wexner had in mind when he mentioned Victoria’s Secret ringtones as a possible marketing move.

In an internal letter that Wexner, who founded The Limited in 1963, sent employees last week, he outlined plans for a “more vibrant, more inspired” business once the company sells its underperforming apparel brands, The Limited and Express. The company intends to focus on the more profitable and less seasonal businesses of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works.

“Our brands will come to life in new ways,” Wexner said. “Maybe Victoria’s Secret ringtones for your mobile phone … emails from (Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works) that know what you’ll like and want based on what you’ve bought.”

Advertisers of many stripes currently send emails touting products they think customers would like based on prior purchases. But marketing for mobile phones is less ubiquitous, though Coca-Cola Co. recently revealed a new mobile phone marketing plan for Sprite.

Wexner also talked about new channels of distribution, developing adjacent product categories, international growth and opportunities for licensing.

Click here to see the full text of Wexner’s letter.

Kroger, the top U.S. grocery store operator, may be getting squeezed by rising dairy prices, with competition from other retailers keeping it from passing on some price increases from suppliers.
 
In dairy, “the rate of inflation was pretty fast,” Chairman and Chief Executive David Dillon said, while discussing first quarter earnings. “For competitive reasons, we don’t want to move the price up too quickly.” 
 
Commodities like dairy are more subject to fluctuations in volume as well as cost, Dillon said. Inflation in this category is generally not sustained, but subject to swings and cycles.
 
“We choose sometimes to be a little slower,” Dillon said. “It doesn’t help us much to pass through the whole increase if it hurts our sales.”
 
Kroger has also seen the same sort of pressures when it comes to produce prices, he said.

–Written by Regan E. Doherty