I think it's a problem with the store. It can't be routine maintenance...in the middle of the day would be a really bad time for them to take down the entire site for maintenance.
No it isn't. Customers will either wait a bit for the store to be back up or get their Apple stuff from another retailer, or maybe go to a physical Apple Store. I doubt many people at all will decide to buy a different brand because one port of purchase for Apple happens to be down currently.
Weird, the main store still seems to be down but I did just get my order page to appear. Looks like day 4 of processing 🙁 I did order it on a Saturday and configured a bit though.