Yeah, I remember when I used to have AT&T and years ago before you could made appointments for pickup, you would just arrive super early before they open and wait in the extremely long line outside an AT&T Store. That goes way back.This is my first time doing it for an Apple release, I've certainly participated in vacation countdowns in the travel forums and video game expansion releases in the gaming forums, which get just as crazy because everybody is trying to log in at once.
I did a couple of those at the back of the Costco lines during the pandemic, no official meetups, just random strangers with a "we're all in this together" mindset. Too bad the camaraderie didn't last.