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Apple Store Fans Camp Out for 24 Hours
Xeo writes "A bunch of dedicated Mac geeks have camped out 24 hours early at the 3rd street Apple store in Santa Monica, CA. One of them is keeping a running web site of his experience. Refresh often to check out his continuing adventures." I waited for a couple of hours to get into the Cambridge, MA Apple Store when it opened. That's one night I'll never get back.
Well, we finally sat down and have somewhat of a line-type thing going. There are about a dozen people here, some of them have got StarCraft going, others are just socializing. There is a constant stream of unenlightened pedestrians constantly asking us one of three questions: "What time does it open?", which borders on imbecilic seeing as the sign saying "6 PM" is right behind me. The second question is "What do you get for being here?", to which I answer "A t-shirt." If they pressure harder, I admit my insanity and respond simply with "Satisfaction." The third question being the most obvious: "Why?" My answer is always "Because I can." It's not every day you have the oppertunity to do something that deprives you of sleep, saps your sanity, and borders on illegality, just for fun. I'm self-employed, I don't have to answer to a boss, and if I want to take a Friday off to camp outside of a compter store, that's my perogative, and one I'll willingly jump at given the chance.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Apple store openings are creepy! I went to the Knox Street opening in Highland Park, Texas and was probably one of the forst 50 inside the store. At lease I had a girlfriend there with me, though, so the geek factor went down by 20%
Anyway, when you're giling in there after they open the doors all the employees are cheering, clapping their hands and yelling a lot. I don't like being a frigging rock star when I walk into a store. My girlfriend walked to the back of the store, turned around, and as we walked out we got our free shirts.
There was nothing special about the store. I'd come back many times over the successive months, but all the stuff there was just as easy to see at my local CompUSA 10 minutes away from my apartment.
I was one of the guys there, and let me tell you, it was an awesome experience. It wasn't about just going into the store, it was all about the waiting. I wasn't as hardcore as Hal, I only got there 10 hours early.
Waiting in line, camped out with a bunch of mac users, with network games going on all around and meeting all sorts of new people was really cool. It was the ultimate group experience.
It's been refered to as the "Cult of Mac", and it's really true. When you get it, you just get it. It was easy to pick out the PC users who came by and said "hi" because they just didn't get it.
And the apple store employees were awesome to us. They brought us bagels and everything!
___ alwaysBETA.com - Hey, you've got nothing better to do.
They wanted the satisfaction of getting on Slashdot, and so they did.
:-).
Nothing wrong with that.
I think it's kinda cool, in a "once in a lifetime" sort of way.
I went to the same Apple Store opening, getting there at 6:00, and there was such a horrible line I just walked away. As others have said, there are plenty of other Apple Stores in LA, and this one isn't even particularly exceptional from what I could see.
It looked from the outside like another regular-sized Apple Store. To tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed - I wanted it to be one of the upscale urban Apple Stores like the one in The Grove.
The line stretched around the block for most of the day, only slowing down around 9:30pm. I thought of going in, but even then I would have had to wait about 15 minutes, and I was tired.
I guess I'm a big Apple fan but not quite that fanatical
D