Regent Street Apple Store
It’s open!
I wish I could say I was sane, and resisted the urge to get out of bed at 4:30AM and go wait in the queue to be one of the first people into the place, but, well, I’m not sane. Arriving at 5:20, I was amazed to find over 350 people already there, instead of the 100-odd I was expecting.
Some, in fact, had been waiting since Thursday night. This surprised me, particularly, because, really, Londoners aren’t hugely into excessive queuing. That there’d be people waiting for two days in, say, San Francisco wouldn’t surprise me. That there’d be people waiting for two days in London, well, yes.
The big draw? There were 300 Lucky Bags to be had. These included £705+ worth of Apple goodies (possibly including the likes of an iPod, iPod mini, speakers, iSight, iLife, etc.), for a bargain price of only £250. The only problem was that you had no idea what was in them until after you bought them. Also, the first 2,500 people in the store received free tee-shirts.
By 8:30, we were estimating the line at about 1,000 people, and by 10:00, it was definitely around 2,000. The police didn’t really know what to do with everyone - I certainly don’t think they were expecting the hoardes.
Local businesses benefited: there was a coffee and sandwich shop just around the corner (behind the queue) that opened at 6:00, and the Starbucks opened just after that. Both places, when asked, admitted Apple had at the very least asked them to open early (I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d sweetened the deal with a little cash, but that’s just speculation). Starbucks was giving regular coffees and teas away free and the line was out the door. It was also the nearest loo to the people who had been queuing the longest.
The store itself was lovely: lots of open space, lots of cool Mac toys, a fantastic live DJ, spinning trance on a turntable through Mac (so you could watch the music as well as listen) in the Theatre, 20 experts at the Genius Bar, huge numbers of staff. Even with all of the people (which they were filtering in slowly so it didn’t get overcrowded), all of the cashiers meant that there probably wasn’t more than one person in front of you.
If you’re into Apple stuff, like Macs or the iconic iPods, this is definitely worth checking out. Even if you’re not, it’s a fun place to go and browse. It’s all about brand at Apple, as always, and it makes for a great experience.
Edit: The BBC has now reported on this. Looks like about 5,000 people turned up, and Apple was buying the coffee in Starbucks. Oh yeah, and we’re all crazy.
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Glad to hear you went. I thought it would be a mob scene. I heard one Apple Store in New York is the hot spot to meet people.
It was a bit of a mob scene, yes, but in a good way. Lots of energy and excitement… even from the ridiculous people who had been queuing for days. A great time.
And did you get a bag of goodies then?
Alas, I did not. A couple people counted the queue and we reckoned we were in there around 360. We didn’t give up hope, though, as we were assured that there were people queuing who did not want the bag.
We also reckoned that 20+ people cut into the line when things were getting exciting and about to open. We even caught a couple of people cutting into the line near us… and promptly kicked them out, of course. So, no, they had run out by the time I got there.
According to all the reports I’ve seen (and all the people to whom I spoke), the much coveted iPods were few and far between. A lot of the bags weren’t so lucky.
I wonder if you can surf in the Apple store? You can in the Seoul store. In fact it unnerved me that you could and noone would come up to you and tell you to stop. Mind you at Micro Anvika on TTC Rd they’re not even connected!
Yep! There were people in the theatre with their laptops and someone I queued with took a bunch of iSight pictures and emailed them to himself.
Sir/madame
Please tell me where i can get the e-mail adress for the apple shop in regents street london. please could u email it to me because i need to email them because my ipod has broken and i have looked evrey where to contact you
please do this
thank u very much