Ann Arbor Apple Store: 8:30 a.m. in line for iPhone 3G
July 11th, 2008
Arrived just before 8 a.m. this morning. Walked into the mall (it opens at 5 a.m. for walkers, I found out) to the sound of clapping and cheering. The festivities had begun.
The Apple employees were outside the store, pumping up the crowd, and handing out coffee and water to anxious waiters. I followed the line past Rogers & Hollands and down to JC Penny, where the familiar sculpture stood, and took my place at the end of the line next to a guy in a Joker/”Dark Knight” shirt.
“I hope they don’t run out,” he said. “I drove past the AT&T store and they had, like, five people in line.”
One lady walking the mall, her iPod mini in hand, asked us why we were all waiting in line.
“You know they’re going to have some tomorrow, right?” she said. One guy told her to go away; she was ruining our fun.
Later a security guard on a Segway rolled past, and an Apple staffer came out and asked if anyone had any questions. They have coffee and water stations set up at strategic points along the waiting line – a nice touch, I thought.
Applause echoed through Briarwood as the first customer in line got in the store. A second round of clapping followed after the transaction took place. All together, it took about 10 or 15 minutes, which is what we expected.
“I’m leaving for vacation next week,” the lady behind me said. “I have to get one before I take off. I hope they don’t run out.”
This fit the general feel of the crowd. One guy didn’t expect this kind of line, but I told him it could be worse: last year, when this Briarwood store opened, the line snaked across the entire mall. All that for just a t-shirt.
Incredibly, Briarwood charges for a wifi connection. There were several WEP connections in the area, and the one free wifi connection wasn’t loading. And I’m not about to pay for wifi – not at some mall. Finally some linksys connection opened up. Hence this post.
One thing I forgot to do was transfer money into my account to actually make this purchase. What a fool I was. Luckily I’m on the grid now, so a quick trip to online banking and I’ll be good to go.
What kind of iPhone will I be getting. Despite all the controversy, I like the white one. I matches my iBook and my iPod 30 GB video, and there’s something about the white look that says “Apple.”
This is report number one from the front lines. Hopefully I’ll post again as I get closer (maybe even in the Apple store, on some super-powered Mac Pro).
Over and out from Ann Arbor.