Goodbye, Apple store. From now on, the company says, its stores are "town squares."

Nordstrom is trying a smaller store on for size.

Twenty miles may have made a $150bn difference.

It's 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, and a section of Linea 1 has left their stations to form a ring on the factory floor. As their supervisor stands in the center, the workers toss a ball of blue yarn back and forth across the circle, each holding on to a segment of string to create an elaborate cat's cradle. As they pass the ball, they take turns making promises, telling each other the things they plan to say and do later. One says she'll spend more time with her family. Another says he'll speak up when he feels he's been treated unfairly.

With its dark, gloomy winters, Seattle is a good place to run a wine accessories store, especially during the holiday season. A few years ago, a wine-themed company called True Fabrications was doing well in Seattle - so well, in fact, that it was running out of space to store its inventory. The owners figured that, to get through their next holiday peak season, they would need another 2,000 to 3,000 pallet positions of capacity, but only for four to five months.