Apple Store London to open November 21

[as2]

as2 and cathish... did you see me there... I was there at about the same time... I wiuld've been the youngest, red top... Yeah?

I started of near the Sushi place at the back of the AppleStore... Was passing around a big bag of chocolates/lollies at around 8am this morning, and drinking copious amounts of coffee!

Think I was just wearing a big fleece and a scarfe, nothing perticuarly memorable.

 

[mfluderx]

Brilliant Night with a load of great people

Brilliant night with loads of great people who happen to be mac users.

I was with Mike (miock - the cinnamon guy) see us in the pic -

http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/regent_street/photo2/pages/bh_starbucks.html

Freezing cold, queued for 15 hours from about 7pm, but had a great time. Thanks to Rob, Nick, the Irish guy and his mate whos names I have completely forgot (sorry) for being great people who made the night pass quickly and in good spirits, also Matt who is a great guy who showed the BBC news clip on his ibook. Mexican wave guy, that was a great laugh. It was a pleasure meeting and chatting with you.

I hope you all got what you wanted and all had a safe journey home.

It was a great experience and if you didn't make it overnight you missed out on something special.

See you at Bluwater.

 

[XIII]

I started of near the Sushi place at the back of the AppleStore... Was passing around a big bag of chocolates/lollies at around 8am this morning, and drinking copious amounts of coffee!

Think I was just wearing a big fleece and a scarfe, nothing perticuarly memorable.

From asda? Yeah... I think I remember you... 🙂

 

[as2]

From asda? Yeah... I think I remember you... 🙂

That would be me!

Just drafting my letter of complaint/concern regarding the Lucky Bag situation to Mr Jobs now...

 

[XIII]

Just drafting my letter of complaint/concern regarding the Lucky Bag situation to Mr Jobs now...

Seriously? I was going to email someplace to say how good the staff were to me, but how craply organised the queue was...

 

[Doctor Q]

It looks like Bruce Willis was there! Or maybe a celebrity impersonator.

The guy in the store:

The real Bruce Willis:

 

[drlunanerd]

Another neat little trick were the Christmas street decorations of the Incredibles along Regent Street in the vicinity of the store - Apple must have paid to put those decorations up in return for the advertising to Pixar that it would bring. Nice.

That's nowt to do with Apple - it's Disney sponsoring the lights this year. Still, an excellent subversive message for us Apple nutters ;-)

 

[drlunanerd]

That would be me!

Just drafting my letter of complaint/concern regarding the Lucky Bag situation to Mr Jobs now...

What are you going to complain about exactly? That your bag didn't have 700 quid worth of gear in it?

Not having a go or anything, but I predicted many punters would be disappointed with the bags, which is why I didn't bite for one. As another guy already put it, you have got a selection of stuff at a good discount, so I'm not sure you're on solid ground to complain?

 

[Mr Ikasu]

I really should have posted this when I was in there but I wasn't registered and didn't want to go through with that then.

Anyway, I got around 9AM this morning (set off at 6 from where I live).

The queue was really really REALLY big but I waited.

I am reliably informed I was visitor number 2304 and as such I just scraped a t-shirt.

Here are a few pics I took and that were uploaded from within the store (haven't taken out the duffs yet)

http://homepage.mac.com/mrikasu

Enjoy.

 

[as2]

What are you going to complain about exactly? That your bag didn't have 700 quid worth of gear in it?

Not having a go or anything, but I predicted many punters would be disappointed with the bags, which is why I didn't bite for one. As another guy already put it, you have got a selection of stuff at a good discount, so I'm not sure you're on solid ground to complain?

I didn't get a lucky bag... that's the point. the queuing system went to pot around the 150 mark. I was about 270 when I got there, and by the time the store opened there were 350 people in front of me!

 

[johnnyjibbs]

I really should have posted this when I was in there but I wasn't registered and didn't want to go through with that then.

Anyway, I got around 9AM this morning (set off at 6 from where I live).

The queue was really really REALLY big but I waited.

I am reliably informed I was visitor number 2304 and as such I just scraped a t-shirt.

Damn! I got there at just before 9am this morning and thought the queue was too long for a t-shirt. I estimated 3 or 4 thousand people. If I'd have stuck it out at that point, I could have got one! 🙁 🙄 😀

 

[richardthomas78]

I got there just after 8am and got a t-shirt - yeah!

A few shots of this inside... nothing new really!!

http://homepage.mac.com/gillthomas78/applestore

 

[drlunanerd]

I didn't get a lucky bag... that's the point. the queuing system went to pot around the 150 mark. I was about 270 when I got there, and by the time the store opened there were 350 people in front of me!

That sucks massively. How the hell did that happen? You're telling me 350 people queue-barged in front of you?

I feel for you, but I'm so glad I didn't queue in the early hours. I'd have nuked the place with rage if that happened to me, ha ha!

You really didn't miss out with the bags, you saved yourself £250, but I know that won't help your pain much. If you queued for one early then you deserved one.

 

[pratikvats]

iSight exchange...

Hey guys,

i'm quite happy with the contents of my lucky bag, but won'tbe able to use most of it until i save up the money for a Mac, which could take a while as i am but a poor student.

i'd like to say thanks to all the guys who made last night tolerable in the freezing cold, especially tom and saif from southampton university.

just wondering whether anyone would want to exchange the isight i got for an ipod mini, as i have no use for it until i get a Mac, so it seems as if its just going to waste.

post me back a reply if you want to.

thanks again, and i'll probably bump into a lot of you in the store at some point!

Pat

 

[drlunanerd]

Hey guys,

i'm quite happy with the contents of my lucky bag, but won'tbe able to use most of it until i save up the money for a Mac, which could take a while as i am but a poor student.

i'd like to say thanks to all the guys who made last night tolerable in the freezing cold, especially tom and saif from southampton university.

just wondering whether anyone would want to exchange the isight i got for an ipod mini, as i have no use for it until i get a Mac, so it seems as if its just going to waste.

post me back a reply if you want to.

thanks again, and i'll probably bump into a lot of you in the store at some point!

Pat

If you had saved the dough you dropped on the bag, you'd be much closer to buying an eMac with edu discount now! 😉

EDIT: I might be tempted to do you a deal on a Power Mac G4 Yikes for your iSight... and then you get the Mac you need my friend!

 

[as2]

That sucks massively. How the hell did that happen? You're telling me 350 people queue-barged in front of you?

I feel for you, but I'm so glad I didn't queue in the early hours. I'd have nuked the place with rage if that happened to me, ha ha!

You really didn't miss out with the bags, you saved yourself £250, but I know that won't help your pain much. If you queued for one early then you deserved one.

To be honest the 10% discount was the most important thing to me, as I was planning on spending almost £1500 on a new iMac and stuff to go with it, so figured that £250 for the goody bag, and then 10% off wasn't bad.

In the end, all I got was an iPod mini for my sister, as she wanted a pink one and I was having trouble getting one, and then left.

I'll probably get a BTO from the website now, but don't know if I can wait. Apple lost out on 1.5k of my money today, because they didn't organise the queue very well.

In the end I think I only spent 10 minutes in the store before I left, because I was too pissed off and tired to care by that point. Felt like i'd just wasted a few hours of my life for a t-shirt that I probably won't wear!

RAGE! 😡

 

[iJoe]

Did anyone else notice the water dripping through the celing in the theatre?

 

[as2]

Did anyone else notice the water dripping through the celing in the theatre?

I don't even think i went upstairs, so no.

 

[Winston Smith]

Well I'd fully intended to do the overnight thing, even though I knew I didn't really need the lucky bag. However I've been laid low with a monster tooth ache, infection etc.

So a big thank you to all of you for the line updates, pictures, anecdotes etc. the atmosphere sounded great and it sounds like the store will be a great success. I've certainly never heard of such fun and cold being endured for a PC World opening!

Maybe I'll make it for night of the Tiger

 

[Loge]

Awesome store. I arrived mid-afternoon, and though very busy, it was still easy to get on stuff and try things out. It was particularly cool being able to try out different types of headphones with the iPods. I would say the checkout would benefit from a single queue though, instead of having to guess which queue would move fastest.

 

[mattmook]

My apology

Since someone (Mike) wanted me to apologize for one of my comments earlier on in this thread for saying "screw you guys i'm already here", well here it is:

Sorry everyone for my rudeness and I hope you all had as much of a good time in the queue as I did. I'd also like to add that for all those with a cinnamon addiction i'd recommend the atomic fireballs from http://everythingcinnamon.com/. If you are me they last for hours and leave you tasting cinnamon for the next 5 hours!

 

[iseenoevil]

Its over

I would like to pay my homage to all the guys I met at MR while in the queue. You all made for a wonderful experience and I would like to stay in contact with all of you that I met.

My iChat/AIM handle is "iseenoevil". Try and send me a message, I will greatly appreciate it.

If you haven't checked up my latest write-up on London, check out http://www.stormyshippy.com/. I will get around in a few days when I am finally rested and non-dazed to wrap up and rebut some of the anti-american/anti-apple criticism that I have come up against as well as the you are crazy/stupid for doing this. People like this frusturate me with their absurd narrowmindedness.

Still haven't gone to sleep and headed to Paris in 3 hours. This fast paced weekend keeps on coming!

-Stormy Shippy (yes, most assuredly my real name)

 

[miock]

Since someone (Mike) wanted me to apologize for one of my comments earlier on in this thread for saying "screw you guys i'm already here", well here it is:

Sorry everyone for my rudeness and I hope you all had as much of a good time in the queue as I did. I'd also like to add that for all those with a cinnamon addiction i'd recommend the atomic fireballs from http://everythingcinnamon.com/. If you are me they last for hours and leave you tasting cinnamon for the next 5 hours!

thanks for the plug, it was nice to be there and share the experience, but it was even nicer to get home have a hot bath and get some sleep.

ok the lucky bags could have been better, but they are still good value, the most annoying thing was the extra people who appeared right at the last minute and managed to get in the queue somehow. I don't know a the best method.

if they gave out tickets, when shouls they do that? if Apple look and say, look we have 300 people now, let's go out and give out the tickets, let's be honest if you get the ticket would you then hang out for the extra time, or go off to a hotel and arrive back at 10am? I think so, but is that what Apple want, surely for them the longer the queues better. stopping traffic in regents st is a big plus, and this is really a publicity stunt, they spent an extra (300 x £700) = £210,000 (so ok this is not really the cost to them, so say it cost them 50% of this amount (there are a fair amount of software afterall) so for just over £100,000, they got prime time news on all the tv channels.

The question of the day must be, who on earth was that weird man/woman/goth who arrived right at the last minute and managed to get interviewed and get in the pictures everywhere???

I have had a very positive weekend, I have stories to tell, people to keep in contact with, a LB to keep or sell, I know I now want/need/will have an ipod photo, thanks Matt for showing it to me, I just can't beleive how blisteringly fast it was at displaying the photographs, a lovely bit of kit, I would willing swap half my LB for one of those beauties.

all the best to all the queuers

mike

 

[jrwo]

if they gave out tickets, when shouls they do that? if Apple look and say, look we have 300 people now, let's go out and give out the tickets, let's be honest if you get the ticket would you then hang out for the extra time, or go off to a hotel and arrive back at 10am? I think so, but is that what Apple want, surely for them the longer the queues better.

People queued up well past the informal "queue count" of 300, even before dawn, so I don't think the facts fit what you think people would have done. And if Apple want to keep an honest queue without giving away place numbers, the tickets only need to be uniquely identifiable, with the ticket/number correlation tracked by Apple. This isn't rocket science - big stores have been doing it for sales and special events for *decades*.

It feels as if I'm going on about this, but it also *really* feels like a classic style over substance error. Keeping the queue honest would have been very easy, but effort went into organising staff to do laps of the building instead. It all felt a bit Bang & Olufsen...

 

[aswitcher]

People queued up well past the informal "queue count" of 300, even before dawn, so I don't think the facts fit what you think people would have done. And if Apple want to keep an honest queue without giving away place numbers, the tickets only need to be uniquely identifiable, with the ticket/number correlation tracked by Apple. This isn't rocket science - big stores have been doing it for sales and special events for *decades*.

It feels as if I'm going on about this, but it also *really* feels like a classic style over substance error. Keeping the queue honest would have been very easy, but effort went into organising staff to do laps of the building instead. It all felt a bit Bang & Olufsen...

Well I hope they have learn't from this so when Sydney finally gets its store we can have a more enjoyable time.