Any indication on launch supplies in stores?

[jmpage2]

are there any indications yet on what launch supplies are going to be like in store based on locations in Australia that already distributed?

We know that a store in San Francisco got hit for over 300 phones but we don’t know if that was their full launch day complement of phones.

 

[PaulyM]

That was 300 for preorders and supply for walk ins. I'll bet they have less than 20 per store when they open tomorrow morning.

 

[Lobwedgephil]

Apple stated that won't affect preorders for that specific store, so guessing not much at that store for lines. Other stores seem to be decent or they would be turning people away.

 

[Renho]

are there any indications yet on what launch supplies are going to be like in store based on locations in Australia that already distributed?

We know that a store in San Francisco got hit for over 300 phones but we don’t know if that was their full launch day complement of phones.

If 300 doesn’t affect them, then I bet they got 1k phones for the store.. or they pulled some from other stores to make up for it..

 

[fs454]

If 300 doesn’t affect them, then I bet they got 1k phones for the store.. or they pulled some from other stores to make up for it..

It could have been a second shipment. Apple does all sorts of things with supply. They could have been contingency stock for DOA units so customers can walk out with a fresh device if theirs has a fault out of the box, or they could have been the November 4th allotment, or even just more stock to sell because Apple was able to ramp production faster than they thought (which was what Tim Cook seemed to claim today in their earnings call).

 

[Plilbeye]

Let's remember that the SF store isn't a small apple store so they would be receiving a decent amount compared to say Valencia Town Center or even Palm Desert so we can't expect all stores to have 1k plus inventory. I'm sure the bay area stores are going to have a tight supply cause I'm sure they moved inventory to compensate for the robbery at the other stores.

 

[jmpage2]

I'm now able to answer my own question and provide info to others.

I've just returned from the Aspen Grove, Colorado store, which apparently had one of the longest, if not the longest queues early on of any store in the state (I got there at 1AM and there were 55 already queued ahead of me, many of them sleeping in their cars all morning with the engine running).

You would think that this store would have a lot of stock for walk ins, but it didn't.

They had good supply of AT&T which was good for me as that's what I was after. Most of those ahead of me when they started handing out reservations to return and pick up product were buying the maximum # of phones in groups, asking Apple lots of questions about where phones would work and buying Verizon phones.

With about 30 ahead of me they reported that all 256Gb Verizon Silver were gone. Shortly after that they reported that all Verizon were gone.

Someone behind me indicated that many of those up front were scalpers purchasing phones for resale in countries like China, Vietnam, etc... this might explain why you would often see one person shepherding a larger group around.

Anyways, when they got to me, number 56 or so in the queue, they were down to AT&T, some T-Mobile and a couple of Sprint models and that was it.

There were only another 30-40 people behind me but the total size of the queue was still around 100.

The stock levels appeared to be pretty low for at least Verizon. The maximum # of Verizon phones they could possibly have had was less than 100.

Obviously different stores have different inventory levels. This is a fairly busy store but inventory levels weren't fantastic. I do know that Apple flagship stores tend to have very large numbers of phones where-as the smaller stores might only have a handful.

In some launch party threads it was being reported that Apple was coming out around 5-6AM and telling those who waited overnight that there was no stock for walk-ins and that they only had stock for existing reservations.

Somewhat shocking if true.

 

[Trackhead37]

I'm now able to answer my own question and provide info to others.

I've just returned from the Aspen Grove, Colorado store, which apparently had one of the longest, if not the longest queues early on of any store in the state (I got there at 1AM and there were 55 already queued ahead of me, many of them sleeping in their cars all morning with the engine running).

You would think that this store would have a lot of stock for walk ins, but it didn't.

They had good supply of AT&T which was good for me as that's what I was after. Most of those ahead of me when they started handing out reservations to return and pick up product were buying the maximum # of phones in groups, asking Apple lots of questions about where phones would work and buying Verizon phones.

With about 30 ahead of me they reported that all 256Gb Verizon Silver were gone. Shortly after that they reported that all Verizon were gone.

Someone behind me indicated that many of those up front were scalpers purchasing phones for resale in countries like China, Vietnam, etc... this might explain why you would often see one person shepherding a larger group around.

Anyways, when they got to me, number 56 or so in the queue, they were down to AT&T, some T-Mobile and a couple of Sprint models and that was it.

There were only another 30-40 people behind me but the total size of the queue was still around 100.

The stock levels appeared to be pretty low for at least Verizon. The maximum # of Verizon phones they could possibly have had was less than 100.

Obviously different stores have different inventory levels. This is a fairly busy store but inventory levels weren't fantastic. I do know that Apple flagship stores tend to have very large numbers of phones where-as the smaller stores might only have a handful.

In some launch party threads it was being reported that Apple was coming out around 5-6AM and telling those who waited overnight that there was no stock for walk-ins and that they only had stock for existing reservations.

Somewhat shocking if true.

What's stupid about that is that the Verizon and sprint phones are the same phones, which both work with cdma and gsm, lol. The sprint phone could be used with Verizon and vice versa and with sim carriers too. A lot of people don't seem to get that. I noticed the Verizon space gray 256 at my store went fast along with all T-Mobile phones but plenty of sprint cdma phones in all sizes and colors.

 

[DaveOP]

What's stupid about that is that the Verizon and sprint phones are the same phones, which both work with cdma and gsm, lol. The sprint phone could be used with Verizon and vice versa and with sim carriers too. A lot of people don't seem to get that. I noticed the Verizon space gray 256 at my store went fast along with all T-Mobile phones but plenty of sprint cdma phones in all sizes and colors.

They do work, though I have had trouble adding roaming plans and Travelpass' to lines with Sprint devices. The Apple Store sold some to us last year (we have a Verizon Enterprise account), and it's been a headache.