No, apple said that about their own retail stores.
AT&T made no comment about that whatsoever.
So hmmm.. lets think about this a second.
Lets say Apple did announce that it will take 15 minutes per customer to process the order. But AT&T didnt announce this info. And somehow you thought it would be quicker to process the order at AT&T because of what reason ? You dont have to activate the phone at AT&T but you do at Apple ?
Get a clue. Same Process wherever you go.