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iPad 2 lines in Wilmington Delaware: BIZARRE

P

pinsrw

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 30, 2010
194
0
I just went to the Christiana Mall Apple Store again for the second Saturday hoping to get an early spot in the line to buy an iPad 2, but to no avail, and left before the store opened because the Apple employees clearly said there were no enough iPads. That's fine, but what I observed about the people standing in the line was beyond bizarre: This Saturday, just like last Saturday, almost the entire line appeared to be Koreans (I can differentiate between different Asian nationalities), many clearly speaking Korean, a few even holding books clearly written in Korean. It appeared to be an organized operation to swamp the store and buy all of the iPads. Who was in charge of it, if anyone, I cannot begin to guess. I did not see a tour bus, nor did I see a tour bus last week. I spoke with another American and she too was there last Saturday and she concurred that the line appeared to be virtually all foreigners. Now granted, I didn't ask for IDs and it very well may have been many of the people in the line were not about to hop on a plane back to Asia because they live here. Entirely possible. But I didn't hear much if any English being spoken. If this were New York, Los Angeles or San Fran, I'd expect lots of tourists. But in Delaware? Bizarre.
 
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how do you know they were koreans....? Just because letters were written in korean on the book? Highly doubtful unless you can read or speak Korean.
You speak, read or understand Korean or you are just guessing that all asians are koreans.
 
i was in that same line and couldnt get what i wanted.they are chinese not korean, Im asian I can tell. They been there all week ive tried twice already to get just one a 32gb wifi and have not been successful. those people are lining up early just to buy then resell. I was standing in line yesterday with this american grandma who just wanted to get one verizon so her grandchildren can play with it when she vists them in london, and the tickets ran out the last two going to a chinese man who ive seen the other day. She politely asked if he really needed two but he refused to give it up. I couldnt get what i wanted but i felt bad for the lady.
 
The OP already said he can differentiate between asian races. It's not very hard if you've been around a variety of asians. I can also distinguish Koreans from other asian races, and the script is also quite distinctive.

I can pretty well distinguish between Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian and Thai. Does that make me a racist? The OP isn't either.

You don't have to read Korean to recognize the distinctive script. Living in Asia for 7-8 years, I can differentiate between 9-10 scripts, none of which I can actually read.
 
CIA said:
[Obligatory comment about how this thread is racist.]
Click to expand...

Your response is ignorant. I like Koreans and have nothing against them. If merely mentioning a person's nationality is racist, then perhaps you are a racist and are merely projecting your flaw onto me.
 
pinsrw said:
Your response is ignorant. I like Koreans and have nothing against them. If merely mentioning a person's nationality is racist, then perhaps you are a racist and are merely projecting your flaw onto me.
Click to expand...

He wasnt saying you were racist, just kidding that a racist post is due to be posted as any thread mentioning Asian scalpers gets turned into a "you racist" thread :)
 
Clearly you miss the sarcasm inherent in my post. Every thread in the theme of this one eventually fills up with one of two types of posts:
1: You are racist and have no idea what you are talking about
2: I'm not racist, I'm just stating the facts of what I saw at my location.


After lining up for a few days here at the Salt Lake City Apple Store, and seeing first hand every day that the first 15 people or so in line were always the same asian folks, I can attest that even in the predominately white mormon state of Utah, scalpers appear to exist.

Commence hating my post.
 
come on guys, does it really matter? the problem is not whether or not they are Chinese or Korean; the problem is that they are all organized resellers. As far as I know, there are no immediate international release to Korea yet, and the closest date to releasing it to a Chinese country is Hong Kong, which is some time in April, but not yet determined.

I would think that if there is some Asian community, then there may be organized reseller ring to do this. But what can you do? they are willing to sleep there if necessary in order to earn their wages. and for us, this is leisure. earning a living often trumps leisure buying. I do feel bad for that grandma that one of the above posters said was trying to get one for her grandkids.

until Apple change their purchase policy and actually taking names, there is nothing that we can do. so guys and girls, chill out about the "I know what Korean/Chinese look like, and how their language looks on a book" it's seemed kind of moot to me. just my opinion. Happy weekend everyone!
 
doandy09 said:
i was in that same line and couldnt get what i wanted.they are chinese not korean, Im asian I can tell. They been there all week ive tried twice already to get just one a 32gb wifi and have not been successful. those people are lining up early just to buy then resell. I was standing in line yesterday with this american grandma who just wanted to get one verizon so her grandchildren can play with it when she vists them in london, and the tickets ran out the last two going to a chinese man who ive seen the other day. She politely asked if he really needed two but he refused to give it up. I couldnt get what i wanted but i felt bad for the lady.
Click to expand...

I'll trust your perceptions about which nationality. At 7:30am it is possible my analysis was off. But I do wonder how this was organized and whether these iPads are going to end up being resold right away on Ebay or in China.
 
That's funny, I thought they were Chinese......but anyway, u already know people from md, nj, & PA come here for the tax free part also, so I don't think that's so bizarre......btw I got an extra iPad here....a 32 gb black Verizon one, will give it to ya for 800 flat, since my wife had to stand in line for 3 mornings before finally getting 2. I changed my mind & decided to share with her. I'm just down the street from Christiana mall
 
If all the people in the front of the line had been white Americans speaking English and were preventing you from getting your ipad, would you have complained? Would you have wondered if there had been a "tour bus" that brought them here? Don't you realize how completely racist you sound? It doesn't matter what nationality the people are, the fact is they arrived in line before you did. If you want an iPad, get up earlier, order online, go to another retailer. Don't come on here and whine that all these "Koreans" are getting the iPads that you somehow feel entitled to because you were born here. Lots of people with Korean parents are born here, and guess what, they even speak and read Korean. How many languages do you know? This is a free country. It's narrow-minded people like you who give this country a bad name. So good luck with your search. While you're at it, why don't you buy some more American flag stickers for your car, I don't think you have enough. And by the way, I'm white, American and have bought 5 iPads within the week and didn't spend more than two minutes in line.
 
iViet said:
btw I got an extra iPad here....a 32 gb black Verizon one, will give it to ya for 800 flat, since my wife had to stand in line for 3 mornings before finally getting 2. I changed my mind & decided to share with her. I'm just down the street from Christiana mall
Click to expand...

So generous, when you could easily get 3 times that in China. Unfortunately I have no money.
 
Blorzoga said:
If all the people in the front of the line had been white Americans speaking English and were preventing you from getting your ipad, would you have complained? Would you have wondered if there had been a "tour bus" that brought them here? Don't you realize how completely racist you sound? It doesn't matter what nationality the people are, the fact is they arrived in line before you did. If you want an iPad, get up earlier, order online, go to another retailer. Don't come on here and whine that all these "Koreans" are getting the iPads that you somehow feel entitled to because you were born here. Lots of people with Korean parents are born here, and guess what, they even speak and read Korean. How many languages do you know? This is a free country. It's narrow-minded people like you who give this country a bad name. So good luck with your search. While you're at it, why don't you buy some more American flag stickers for your car, I don't think you have enough. And by the way, I'm white, American and have bought 5 iPads within the week and didn't spend more than two minutes in line.
Click to expand...

If I lined up every day and saw the same 15 white American looking people at the front of the line, then yea, I would be pissed. I wouldn't post that they were "White American Scalpers", but I would post that they were scalpers. Why? Where I live, the majority of people are white Americans, (with a noted large population of Latino Americans.) Seeing the same Asian people every day buying iPads from my Apple store does raise eyebrows when linked to similar stories around the country.
People stating the fact that usually the front of the line is made up of people who are Asian is simply descriptive. Couple this with many news stories about how the iPad 2 is available in Asian countries with huge markups and it's not a stretch to put one and two together.
I'm sure you could buy a iPad 2 last week in Estonia if you looked hard enough, but for the moment, all the attention was focused on the LARGE amount of iPad2s showing up in the gray markets of Asia.

If for whatever reason the iPad was mostly being snapped up by Latino's and shipped to Central and South America gray market dealers, then people would be posting the same threads but replacing "Asian" with "Latinos".
 
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CIA said:
If I lined up every day and saw the same 15 white American looking people at the front of the line, then yea, I would be pissed. I wouldn't post that they were "White American Scalpers", but I would post that they were scalpers. Where I live, the majority of people are white Americans, (with a noted large population of Latino Americans.) Seeing the same Asian people every day buying iPads from my Apple store does raise eyebrows when linked to similar stories around the country.
People stating the fact that usually the front of the line is made up of people who are Asian is simply descriptive. Couple this with many news stories about how the iPad 2 is available in Asian countries with huge markups and it's not a stretch to put one and two together.
I'm sure you could buy a iPad 2 last week in Estonia if you looked hard enough, but for the moment, all the attention was focused on the LARGE amount of iPad2s showing up in the gray markets of Asia.

If for whatever reason the iPad was mostly being snapped up by Latino's and shipped to Central and South America gray market dealers, then people would be posting the same threads but replacing "Asian" with "Latinos".
Click to expand...

Then why not label them simply as scalpers. They're just trying to make a buck. Whether you realize it or not, you're being racist. Why would they have come on a tour bus. Maybe they all drove down to tax free Delaware in a convoy. Maybe there's a part of Delaware that has a large Asian population that you aren't aware of. Do you work for the census bureau?
 
pinsrw said:
So generous, when you could easily get 3 times that in China. Unfortunately I have no money.
Click to expand...

Didn't get it to scalp, when they had some available, they only limited it to 1 per person, after they went through the line, my wife had the opportunity to get a second one, & they only had Verizon's & all wifi's left. If I wanted to make money, I could've gotten the wifi's...but that's not my intention. Guess I'll return it soon.
 
They could root these guys out if they only insisted on non cash transactions like the did with the iPad1.

Seriously, why did they change this?

Who is walking around with $800 cash anyway?
 
Zimmy68 said:
They could root these guys out if they only insisted on non cash transactions like the did with the iPad1.

Seriously, why did they change this?

Who is walking around with $800 cash anyway?
Click to expand...

Korean scalpers, of course.
 
Blorzoga said:
Then why not label them simply as scalpers. They're just trying to make a buck. Whether you realize it or not, you're being racist. Why would they have come on a tour bus. Maybe they all drove down to tax free Delaware in a convoy. Maybe there's a part of Delaware that has a large Asian population that you aren't aware of. Do you work for the census bureau?
Click to expand...

I have no clue about the tour bus thing, that seems a little crazy.

If the police simply put out a APB for a "Human murderer" then crimes would never be solved. People want more info. If only a few stores showed a majority of asian buyers then I would chalk that up to the demographic breakdown of the area where those store are.
When the majority of stores are showing this trend, coupled by the fact that people of Asian descent only make up about 4.5% of the US population. (Whole country) then you have to wonder what's up. IF the iPad is so popular with Asian Americans, why isn't there more marketing to this specific demographic? If about 5% of the country's population makes up the majority of early adopters, why don't we see tons of Asian Americans walking around with iPad2's?
 
Have you been using the online inventory tracker for Target, Walmart and Best Buy? I noticed all week local inventory in the Philly / Wilmington area and in fact picked one up at Target in Springfield PA. I also called the Best Buy on 202 a couple times this week and they had inventory, which seems to be the case now too. I had no reason to have to buy my iPad at an Apple Store :)

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1118982/

Good luck to you.
 
PhilaScott said:
Have you been using the online inventory tracker for Target, Walmart and Best Buy? ....
Good luck to you.
Click to expand...

I'm boycotting Best Buy because of the Consumerist.com article about Geek Squad but I did check and both Target & Walmart have no stock.
 
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