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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.
Don't they know they can shop online?
Or they could just drive to another store quicker!
Those crazy kids.
After reading the /. summary, and the first few pages of the article, I still don't know WHY they're doing this. More information in the summaries, pleaaase!
(Please forgive me if I've missed something obvious, it's early Saturday morning, and I'm stuck at work).
...then you could never understand!
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!
Little stories like this always make me feel better. I may be a loser, but I'm not that bad.
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Friday, July 11 2003
As I write this, at nearly 8 PM Pacific time..
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The new G5 is so fast, it warps time!
By my watch, it's only 5:46pm Pacific Time.
-ajb
That Los Angeles has an apple store not 30 minutes away in decent traffic.
Photos.
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.
The kind cool thing is that these guys stayed up all night, foregoing any sleep at all -- and when dawn came there was still no one else in line. So the effort wasn't just to beat out other fanboys (there being no one to beat out that early), it was also to hold an expectant vigil on the doorstep of thier favourite fruit company. Everyone else who got a good night's sleep and woke up to condemn them is missing the point, big time.
Why would they buy their Mac online with a measly OneClick(tm) when they can have a real-life adventure? Makes sense to me... it's not like they were holed up in a line for a new Gateway Store or Attack of The Clones or something.
Not that he's horded around different local shops to get power for his iBook and still maintain his airport linkup. even left his 'post' by driving around the block trying to charge his iBook batteries. Visiting other stores to get food, drink, and horde electricity from them.
Not that the group of them where there for 13 hours before anyone else showed up
Not that he has done this before http://emayhem.org/photostories/1027803100.shtml
But this little tid-bit,
I'll point you to the photostory from the last Apple Store opening I attended with friends, this time of the flagship Los Angeles store at The Grove last year. As an antecdotal side note, I split up with my ex-girlfriend not much longer after that... she bought a PC and it kind of went downhill from there.
http://emayhem.org/ramblings/10579271374.shtml
Seriously now, is your life that sad or delusioned that you will end a relationship with your woman because she bought a PC !!
Of course, what probably really happened is she got pissed that going to an apple store opening and living, eating, sleeping Apple Computers was more important than her, she said "c ya"
I follow the SDK and GDN principles.. Spelling Dont Kount, Grammer Dont Neither
I'm sure I'll get modded down as a troll for this, but my god!! I was wondering what could be more pathetic than someone hanging out waiting for a new computer store to open. Then, there it was: someone who would sit there clicking refresh in his browser in order to follow the "adventures" of the person hanging out waiting for the computer store to open....
Better to sit alone in front of your computer on friday night mocking him on a web discussion board he may not even read. :-)
I showed up at 4pm and was maybe 40th in line or so, and I made it into the store with the first group of people allowed in (at 5:45, a little earlier than expected), which included the people who stayed overnight. I have no clue why anybody would stay overnight for that, unless they just wanted to experience sitting around overnight on third street.
I actually got back into line at 6pm to meet up with a couple friends who got there then, and we got in to the store just in time to see Less Than Jake play.
Two trips into the store = two t-shirts, a trip to get my powerbook looked at at the genius bar before it got too crowded, a chance to win an iSight, and live music. Score!
...if thinking of others as foolish or pathetic makes you feel better about yourself then you may not be as well-off as you think.
-- thinkyhead software and media
It's 5:24 am here and the last update is 2 am. What are these guys doing, sleeping? Let's get with it, folks, these fine Apple products are not going to appreciate themselves!!!!
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
I know, I know. I was just taking the opportunity to be a bit "cheeky". It's the name "Boxing Day", it always makes me think of two guys duking it out over some leftover Christmas presents. But hey, I'm all for more days off from work!
Sapere aude!