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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Done, gone. who wrote (53140)	5/20/2006 11:03:21 AM
From: William F. Wager, Jr.	Respond to of 213182

It Opens!... I've just returned from the Fifth Avenue Apple store after attending the most dramatic, exciting and star-studded store event in Apple's history. The Cube was conceived to be the perfect entrance, the spiral glass stairs make for a history-raising grand entrance, and the store space itself is breathtaking. The short early line and thunderstorms translated into a huge line just before and after the opening. At 4:10 p.m. New York Times tech writer David Pogue showed up with a new black MacBook, with the iMovie recording feature running, and was interviewing people. At the same time, we could hear the store employees yelling and hooting inside the store. At 4:30 p.m. there were 915 people in line, stretching around the block. Security guards split the line at business entrances to keep them from being blocked. At about 5:30 p.m. dozens of store employees came up the stairs and started working the waiting line, standing on the plaza and making like cheerleaders--the crowd yelled back. At the same moment, Steve Jobs appeared at the entrance, generating more yells, including from some young woman who told Jobs, "You hot!" Apple's architects and retail execs also joined the group, standing to the right of the cube entrance. Johnson and Blankenship hugged again. The press had arrived and were positioned to the right of the entrance. With just 15 minutes left before opening, the young man who was #8 in line turned to his female companion and proposed to her. She accepted, and that set off a ripple of "Awwww" back through the crowd, and up to the Apple staffers. Some came over to offer their congratulations. The waiting line was in a perfect configuration to watch the show and create sidewalk buzz. The closest people were both those at the front of the line, and those at the end. Both groups were looking straight at the cube, which is raised up several steps, creating a stage. The pedestrian area was jammed, and there was a huge crowd of people across Fifth Avenue trying to catch a glimpse of what was occurring. Perhaps a minute early, someone in the crowd began a countdown--from 60! Johnson looked at his watch quizzically and laughed. The crowd continued through to the end with almost perfect accuracy, a security guard unfastened the barrier tape in front of Stormy, and he walked forward to shake hands with Steve Jobs and start down the glass stairs. At that point the sound from below was deafening. There were staffers on the landings to make sure no one slipped, since it was still wet outside. As your eyes reach the level of the ceiling, you can begin to sense how singulary large the space is. Look to the right... look to the left, it's all store. At the bottom we reached the gray stone floor and just continued on a spiral around the base of the stairs, which is delineated by a curved stone bench. The yelling continued for many minutes, until the store filled up quite tightly. Many people seemed to be interested in purchasing products, and I heard lots of specific purchase questions from visitors. The point-of-sale counter quickly drew lines. Some of those purchases came from celebrities that just happened to show up: James Woods, Kevin Bacon (video editing software and gear), Julianne Moore, Amy Poler, Rachel Dretch, Elizabeth Berkeley, Kanye West, Tina Fey (MacBook Pro), two guys from the show "Queer Eye For the Straight Guy" (don't know which), Steven Colbert and--get this!--Triumph the Comic Insult Dog. A later arrival told me he got into line at 4:30 p.m. and came through the door as visitor #915 at 7:20 p.m., but that included rampant line-cutting near the FAO Schwartz where the security guard apparently wasn't watching closely enough. I counted the line as 1,099 at 7:50 p.m. when I came outside, and there was a fairly consistent renewal of the line as people were allowed inside. About 15 minutes later I asked a man in about position #75 what time he arrived--5:30 p.m., indicating a 2-1/2 hour wait. When I finally left the store around 8:30 p.m. I saw James Woods and two males carrying laptops away from the store. Word in the store is that Kevin Bacon was also making a substantial purchase. By 8:15 p.m. all 2,500 T-shirts had been given out. P.S.--Sorry to anyone who e-mailed me late Friday. Thunderstorms kept my laptop inside its case and my Sidekick battery couldn't keep up with my 24-hour schedule and died. Watch the video. ifostore.cachefly.net