There was actually a line of people waiting to get into the Pioneer Place Apple Store this morning.
Sheesh, maybe Apple computers really are a cult.
I got downtown a little before 9:00 AM. After picking up a soy chai (grande, no water, no foam) and a cinnamon scone (thanks, Starbucks! Wow my life is filled with cultish behavior), I wandered down to the lower level, and encountered the line.
I knew that the store had 1000 t-shirts to give away, and there was only about 50-60 people in line, so I figured I could go away and come back and still get a shirt, but I joined my fellow Apple-loving-folk and waited it out.
Sadly, there were no hot girls near me, just a family with three boys on one side, and an older guy on the other, and other assorted non-single or non-hot trendy geeks, so I plugged in my iPod to while away the half-hour. (The Blues Brothers’ original soundtrack, for those wanting to know what I was listening to.) At one point one of the boys in front of me counted the people in line and announced that he was #55. Good to know.
The manager for the store kept coming out and whooping it up and shouting, and because we were in the tunnel between the two sections, which was enclosed a bit, it was very loud and annoying.
But, somehow, when at 9:30 AM all of the Apple Store employees came rushing out along the line, whooping and hollering and high-fiving the people in line, it didn’t seem as loud nor as annoying. Go figure.
It took me a while to actually get into the store, because they seemed to be enforcing the fire code or something, which was apparently around 40 people (not including staff, which was at least another 20). When I was at the head of the line, I chatted with a guy wearing a black fleece vest with an Apple logo and “Security” on the chest. Yes, he was, in fact, Apple Security, and he normally worked down in Cupertino; he had flown up for the opening of the store. Funny. He warmed up when I mentioned that I’d worked for Customer Relations in Austin for a brief while. We traded Steve Jobs stories. I can’t repeat any of his. Probably shouldn’t commit any of mine to the internets, either.
I did get a shirt, and was going to buy something but didn’t because it was all full-bore retail price, no “Opening Day” sales or anything.