I have 2 smaller Apple Stores near me, but I was wondering if I should drive further to the larger store (4 times larger). I'd guess that the larger store would have a bigger initial shipment, but it should also have more customers in line...
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iPad 3g on Friday; Better luck @ bigger Apple stores?
- Thread starter dannycer
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I would think the store in the least populated area would give you the better chance, but thats just my thinking.
I'm facing a similar dilemma. There is a flagship store downtown, but also many other Apple stores in surrounding suburbs. Right now I'm leaning towards flagship. I'm guessing they will receive significantly more iPads than the local stores, hopefully more than enough to offset the additional traffic.
Nobody, probably including Steve Jobs, knows for sure where your best bet is.
But my gut feeling is: suburban Best Buy.
But my gut feeling is: suburban Best Buy.
iSingandiDance
macrumors 6502a
I don't think this would make sense, since supply = demand. The demand wouldn't be as strong in the least populated area.
Also, it really depends on which capacity you're looking to get. You can best believe that the 16 GB will smoke. 64 GB will be the last to sell out.
I say go to any when the store opens and you can't miss out. That's what I'm gonna do. 😀
What time you show up will also play into it... While there are certainly us die-hards who will take the day off and spend the whole day standing in line, most people have to work. So if you hit one of the smaller suburb stores, you'll probably be in luck as most people will be stuck at work downtown until after 5pm.
It's all a game. Just play it as such!
It's all a game. Just play it as such!
Zepaw
macrumors 65816
I don't know how you would find the smaller ones, but think outside the box because there are bound to be more like my bookstore. My university's bookstore is going to get them and will guaranteed have extra. They only got 20 iPads when the Wifi came out and they didn't sell out for over a week.
Chupa Chupa
macrumors G5
I think if you try to buy one on Friday you will get one. Apple has been ramping up production for a few weeks now...maybe longer. There were not any shortages of the WiFi version until late Sunday after launch and then it was only certain models at certain stores. It took a bit longer for them to have no models in stock at all... and the big reason for that was they were concentrating on building 3Gs. Don't Panic.
From what happened on April 30th you can take away that the Apple stores in the major cities will sell out while the ones in the suburbs won't.
igetit
macrumors member
Here in Boston (at the Boylston store) as far as I'm aware they never sold out--at least not early in the day. We got to the Apple Store at 815am and there was a line but nothing too long. By 9am the line grew a lot but the only thing that delayed us was that a lot of people had made reservations and were allowed to enter the store first. Nonetheless we got into the store by 10am and they had plenty of stock even though we didn't end up purchasing one. This was on a Saturday.
I think less people are going to be going on a Friday evening than would on a Saturday morning. Also, there are no reservations for the iPad 3G so the line should move much quicker. On top of that, the cheaper iPads will likely sell more so I don't see demand for the 3G model being as high as that for the WiFi-only model. These three things combined make me think that you should have no problem getting an iPad 3G wherever you go.
Having said that, I'd say go to the larger store and get there by around 3:30pm and I think you'll be fine. That's just me 2c though.
I think less people are going to be going on a Friday evening than would on a Saturday morning. Also, there are no reservations for the iPad 3G so the line should move much quicker. On top of that, the cheaper iPads will likely sell more so I don't see demand for the 3G model being as high as that for the WiFi-only model. These three things combined make me think that you should have no problem getting an iPad 3G wherever you go.
Having said that, I'd say go to the larger store and get there by around 3:30pm and I think you'll be fine. That's just me 2c though.
Ha, yeah, girlfriend got cold feet at the end. I mean I wanted to see it anyway, which I had to wait until the store opened to do at 9. So call it an hour. It really wasn't that bad considering I waited 18 hours for the original iPhone and 3 hrs for the iPhone 3g (twice, because I went again and waited with the gf in NYC). 2 hours was a breeze!