The iLine Endeth: Buying an iPhone
The closer it got to 6pm, the weirder the atmosphere got at the iLine at the Union Square Apple Store here in San Francisco. The lady next to me explained she was buying an iPhone for a colleague in Japan--a colleague who was aware that iPhones won't work there. (He wanted one anyway.) As I was noticing that that the gents in front of me were all drinking beer (is that legal on a San Francisco sidewalk?) a woman approached one of them and said she was casting a Dodge commercial and wondered if he'd like to audition; he turned her down.
I also noticed that there was a small boy dressed as a large iPhone standing nearby...
As well as a man who had descended on the store for the express purpose of not buying an iPhone...
At about 5:30, the Apple iLine handlers began condensing the line--everyone who'd been sprawled on the sidewalk or stretched out in a chair got up and squinched closer to the store itself.
And then we heard hooting and hollering from behind, which turned out to be an army of seemingly dozens and dozens of Apple Store staffers in Jobsian black shirts, who marched past us into the store.
At 6--more or less on the dot--us iPhone buyers started to get let in, in small groups. As the eighty-third person in line, it took awhile before I got in. But once I did, it was one of the most bizarre, Barnumesque experiences of my life.
I entered to cheers from bystanders and the hearty congratulations of multiple Apple Store employees outside. Inside many of those dozens of staffers I'd seen march in were standing around, applauding us. Like we'd actually accomplished something--winning the Boston Marathon, maybe?--rather than simply having decided to give Steve Jobs some money in exchange for a telephone.
My group of buyers were ushered up the store's grand glass staircase to further cheers and applause. It was beginning to feel as if were ascending to heaven.
Naw. We were just heading to one of several areas of the store that had been set up for iPhone sales. And at this point, it became clear that rumors that each store would be limited to five or fifty iPhones were way off, at least in this case. There were stacks and stacks of iPhones in the place--enough, I suspect, to make everyone outside happy. (My guess is we'll see no Wii-like iPhone shortages.) Just as important, there were plenty of cashiers to sell them.
As we stood in line to plunk down our money, an Apple employee thoughtfully let us try out an iPhone, during the final minutes before we, ourselves, would become iPhone owners...
...while another staffer attempted to sell us iPhone accessories, before we technically had iPhones to use them with...
A surprising percentage of the shoppers were paying in cash--I saw as many hundred-dollar bills as I've ever seen outside of Las Vegas...
And a friendly and efficient clerk rang up the two phones I bought. (The transaction took a long time, though, apparently because their credit-card approval system was overloaded, as were the printers the salespeople were producing receipts on.)
When I exited the store, Apple employees once again congratulated me as if I'd accomplished something, and the circus was still in full swing outside. I emerged a hero, and then went back to reality--which in this case involving heading for PC World's nearby offices so me and my colleagues could do hands-on work with the iPhones I'd just bought.
Apple Stores were open until midnight--I wonder if the craziness at this one eventually let up? And whether, later in the evening, anyone was able to buy a phone by simply strolling into the store and asking for one, no sleeping bag or folding chair required?
If you were at an Apple Store tonight--or, for that matter, an AT&T one, although the scenes at them were apparently relatively subdued--we'd love to hear a report.
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I went to the Palo Alto store at about 8:30 P.M. It took me about 7 minutes to get a phone, and they had plenty to sell. They use the new automated system where they email you a recepit, so it went very fast. Everyone was also extremely polite.
I was at the AT&T store in Long Beach it was very hot out but the whole buying a iPhone thing was a hoot and you are correct lots of kooky people:) But all in all it was very fun lots of nice people to talk to no anger, was very fun for me. the Store was slow but I had a idea this would happen. the store employees were very nice and polite