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Tonight 1am order online for in store pickup Saturday
- Thread starter kupkakez
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They just get there really early is all. Buy 2 phones a piece and bam, daily walk-in stock exhausted. There's nothing wrong with what they're doing really. Just wish Apple gave us the opportunity to buy outright from ALL carriers online for pickup. Scalpers are paying cash. At least online, they'd have to have cards. Might slow some things down.
Honestly I wouldn't mind going to the store really really early - I'd just be really really bummed if I was #1 or #2 in line and they didn't have any or only Sprint models - that's the problem - it's not just hoping they have some, it's banking that they have some and that it's the carrier/color/memory that you want.
I'm looking for AT&T Gold, 128GB - and that seems RARE....
I'm looking for AT&T Gold, 128GB - and that seems RARE....
Those line mules are probably only getting paid either $50 or $100 per phone to wait in line. If you offer them $10 over, they'll take it and sell you their phone.. its just money to them
My thoughts too. There's no guarantee they'll have what I'm looking for and I'll be annoyed if I wait and they didn't even get one in. I'm thinking this weekend will be a big shipment but just a guess (or wishful thinking). I'm really hoping that after this week, the international launches will allow for more inventory at our local stores.
Yeah, no chance I'm waiting in line. I'd rather have to wait a few more days for the phone that queue up for 4 hours early in the morning to roll the dice on getting my exact desired model.
I don't understand why Apple is so worried about walk-up inventory when most of it winds up getting claimed by scalpers and leaving the country. It's a pretty dumb strategy.
This.
Wasting hours of my time sitting on a side walk for what's essentially a roll of the dice is crazy. It's even crazier that Apple is so concerned with walk-ups if it's truly this clear that so many of the walk-ups are scalpers.
So since the stock seems to be as constricted (if not more so, given that we're adding more countries to the mix tomorrow) as the gold 5s, does anyone remember when the gold 5s became a bit more readily available (like not needing a bot to buy online or not needing to be at the mall at 4am)?
Does anyone know what happens to the inventory if it isn't claimed by walk-ins? Does it stay in the separate inventory for people who come later in the day or does it go to online pre-order automatically? I know it probably won't happen with the phones we are all looking for but I imagine some Sprint phone make it past store opening.
Apple 'want' the appearance of crazy rabid fans lining up for hours for the phone. Apple will continue to withhold online stock until the main-stream news sites start clearly showing the lines are just full of elderly folks acting as line mules for scalpers
I've been to the store nearly daily. I don't believe for 1 second my store is putting ANYthing online. There's just too many people walking in to buy and even if they had any remainders going into the night - they'd just sell them first thing anyway so why bother.
Sorry for all of the recent questions but I have one more for those that have waited outside the store the last few days. Do store employees come out in advance to let you know what they have or do you but find out until the store opens? If they did come out early, how much earlier before the store opened?
This makes me think it'd be funny to do a little mini-documentary / investigative reporting piece on the export issue. I bet you could whip together some interviews with line mules and their handlers (follow the mules after sale for a bit) and then some disappointed non-mules (both after being disappointed in line and people who in general can't find the phone they want).
Put it all together, throw in a little "Apple doesn't care about Americans" angle (since the muled phones are going internationally), post it on YouTube, and watch the mainstream media eat it up. That was the only thing that caused them to change their practices when they launched in China.
NOTE: I'm not really going to do this, as I think it would come off as a little xenophobic (and we definitely don't need any more of that going around) and it would also be a lot of effort. At that point, I'd just be better off waiting in line myself. I do think that such a video would get more views than Unbox Therapy's did, though.
Probably too late now, but if the upcoming ipad is also delayed in China, we're gonna see the same set of scalpers out. These line mules have nothing but endless spare time, there not going away anytime soon..
I don't think it's too late now, I still see the same line of people outside my Apple Store every morning, the employees know the english speaking ones by name now. Granted there aren't bus/van loads of them like there was launch day but still at least 50 every morning by 730-8.
Pretty interesting. Yeah, Apple's gonna have to work out a way to diminish this some next time around. It just looks really bad. Takes away from the excitement and enthusiasm and makes it a shady game of sorts.
Allowing for outright purchases online for in store pickup might help a bit, instead of encouraging walk-ins like this.
In line at my store and they have a big difference in stock. They keep it all to walk ins unless they have an excess number for that model then they put it online.
Yeah, I think they set aside much more for walk-ins. I went to my local Apple Store today and they had several models of the 6+ in stock (the apple website listed none). I got a regular 6 for T-Mobile that wasn't listed as in stock either. I think after another week or so they will be able to keep much more stock for personal pickup.