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Apple Businesses

Apple Store Fans Camp Out for 24 Hours 88

Posted by pudge from the better-things-to-do dept.
Xeo writes "A bunch of dedicated Mac geeks have camped out 24 hours early at the 3rd street Apple store in Santa Monica, CA. One of them is keeping a running web site of his experience. Refresh often to check out his continuing adventures." I waited for a couple of hours to get into the Cambridge, MA Apple Store when it opened. That's one night I'll never get back.
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Apple Store Fans Camp Out for 24 Hours More

Apple Store Fans Camp Out for 24 Hours

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  • Why? (Score:5, Funny)

    by BoomerSooner ( 308737 ) on Friday July 11, 2003 @07:03PM (#6420935) Homepage Journal
    Don't they know they can shop online? [apple.com]

    Or they could just drive to another store quicker! [apple.com]

    Those crazy kids.

  • what are they doing it for? (Score:4, Informative)

    by FrenZon ( 65408 ) * on Friday July 11, 2003 @07:08PM (#6420967) Homepage
    After reading the /. summary, and the first few pages of the article, I still don't know WHY they're doing this. More information in the summaries, pleaaase!

    (Please forgive me if I've missed something obvious, it's early Saturday morning, and I'm stuck at work).

  • A couple of words on the subject (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11, 2003 @07:31PM (#6421099)
    Little stories like this always make me feel better. I may be a loser, but I'm not that bad.
    • Some people take this corporate loyalty a little too far.

      It's not like Apple is releasing some gotta-have-it new product. They're just opening a store.

      Do Sears fans camp out in front of the Sears store?
      Do Home Depot fans camp out in front of the HD store?

      I know people that camp out to get concert tickets for a good band, but that's because there's a limited number of tickets, the tickets sell out very quickly and the band doesn't come around all that often. The tickets are hot and rare. The apple store i

    • On the other hand... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Slur ( 61510 )
      ...if thinking of others as foolish or pathetic makes you feel better about yourself then you may not be as well-off as you think.

  • Problems telling time... (Score:5, Funny)

    by madajb ( 89253 ) on Friday July 11, 2003 @07:48PM (#6421193)
    ===
    Friday, July 11 2003

    As I write this, at nearly 8 PM Pacific time..
    ===

    The new G5 is so fast, it warps time!
    By my watch, it's only 5:46pm Pacific Time.

    -ajb

  • I can't say which I'd like more. Ogre or Triumph (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds thundering through the line yelling 'NERDS!!!' pushing people down?

    Or Triumph rehashing his Starwars line jokes.

    Decisions decisions.

    It'll be interesting in 10 years, when much like new albums from popular or unpopular artists, trading cards, and pogs, this guy realizes he wasted his life persuing things when life just passed him buy.

    24 hours at a time.

    -n

    • > this guy realizes he wasted his life persuing things when life just passed him buy. [sic]

      Perhaps doing something interesting like this, once, is less of a waste of time than, say, sitting around and griping illiterately about how only losers would do this.

      Heck, I'd do it once, just to say I did it. For a really good movie, for the introduction of the iMac, for a live performance of a favorite artist... camping out for something is an experience. Doesn't so much matter what it is, as long as you're

  • The most bizarre thing is (Score:5, Funny)

    by metalhed77 ( 250273 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (cvwerdna)> on Friday July 11, 2003 @08:20PM (#6421362) Homepage
    That Los Angeles has an apple store not 30 minutes away in decent traffic.
    • [The most bizarre thing is] that Los Angeles has an apple store not 30 minutes away in decent traffic.

      So, given typical L.A. traffic, you'd be lucky to get there in six hours. I'd rather camp out in Santa Monica by the beach.

  • Mac Users Camp? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well I never.....

  • Store openings (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mrpuffypants ( 444598 ) * <(moc.liamg) (ta) (stnapyffuprm)> on Friday July 11, 2003 @09:03PM (#6421517)
    Apple store openings are creepy! I went to the Knox Street opening in Highland Park, Texas and was probably one of the forst 50 inside the store. At lease I had a girlfriend there with me, though, so the geek factor went down by 20%

    Anyway, when you're giling in there after they open the doors all the employees are cheering, clapping their hands and yelling a lot. I don't like being a frigging rock star when I walk into a store. My girlfriend walked to the back of the store, turned around, and as we walked out we got our free shirts.

    There was nothing special about the store. I'd come back many times over the successive months, but all the stuff there was just as easy to see at my local CompUSA 10 minutes away from my apartment.

    • Re:Store openings (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Having a girlfriend reduces your geek factor to a good, hard, solid 0. You simply aren't dedicated enough to be a geek if you can afford to maintain a female.

  • Why not? (Score:4, Funny)

    by flux4 ( 157463 ) on Friday July 11, 2003 @09:17PM (#6421580) Homepage
    The kind cool thing is that these guys stayed up all night, foregoing any sleep at all -- and when dawn came there was still no one else in line. So the effort wasn't just to beat out other fanboys (there being no one to beat out that early), it was also to hold an expectant vigil on the doorstep of thier favourite fruit company. Everyone else who got a good night's sleep and woke up to condemn them is missing the point, big time.

    Why would they buy their Mac online with a measly OneClick(tm) when they can have a real-life adventure? Makes sense to me... it's not like they were holed up in a line for a new Gateway Store [gateway.com] or Attack of The Clones [gregdooley.com] or something.
    • I am pretty sure that people camping out in front of a Gateway Store for its grand opening is one of the signs of the Apocalypse.

      Of course if a Linux Store (aren't penguins cute), BSD Store (get that by a zoning committee [userfriendly.org]), or an Apple Store opened up in a new place, then campers are to be expected.

  • The saddest part about this guy is... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sweede ( 563231 ) on Friday July 11, 2003 @09:25PM (#6421607)
    Not that he's wasted >34 hours of his life waiting for a store opening. Not the release of a G5, not to be the first 10 in a store and get a new Mac, Not for any other reason except that it is a NEW store.

    Not that he's horded around different local shops to get power for his iBook and still maintain his airport linkup. even left his 'post' by driving around the block trying to charge his iBook batteries. Visiting other stores to get food, drink, and horde electricity from them.

    Not that the group of them where there for 13 hours before anyone else showed up

    Not that he has done this before http://emayhem.org/photostories/1027803100.shtml [emayhem.org]

    But this little tid-bit,

    I'll point you to the photostory from the last Apple Store [emayhem.org] opening I attended with friends, this time of the flagship Los Angeles store at The Grove last year. As an antecdotal side note, I split up with my ex-girlfriend not much longer after that... she bought a PC and it kind of went downhill from there.
    http://emayhem.org/ramblings/10579271374.shtml [emayhem.org]

    Seriously now, is your life that sad or delusioned that you will end a relationship with your woman because she bought a PC !!

    Of course, what probably really happened is she got pissed that going to an apple store opening and living, eating, sleeping Apple Computers was more important than her, she said "c ya"

    • It is not sad or being delusioned. It would be nice if more people had this kind of love, passion, and dedication to something they love and believe in. As it is, this nation has become an entire country or "don't care's" and "whatever's". If the qualities found in this person were found in everyone, subjects such as peace, hunger, hard work, equalism, marriage, and others would not concepts alien to anyone anymore.

      He lost his girlfriend because of something he believes in. Do you believe in something
  • I went to the chicago store opening a couple weeks ago and there were people that had camped out in front of the place all night, I have a job.

    I did get there around 5 pm, the store opened at 6. I was ~460ish in line, and it took an extra 45 minutes for me to get in from that spot, but by the time I got in the line had circled the block twice and there had to be over 2000 people lined by then.

    it was worth the wait!!!
    don't go too late, but don't waste your time spending the night there either!
    • I, too, went to the opening of the store in Chicago. I got there around 6:30, and the line was still two blocks long. So my friends and I said, "Screw It," and went to get some excellent Chicago-style stuffed pizza at Giordano's, and then came back to the Apple store at around 8:00. At that point, there was no line at all, and we walked right in. I'd pick eating pizza over waiting in line any day!
      • Giordano's has the best pizza in the world.

        Hmmmm...pizza...
        • ITALY has the best pizza in the world. Everything else is a pale imitation.
          • I sampled pizza all over Italy and while I was impressed with the sauces, I just didn't get into the 1) relative thinness and 2) lack of cheese. This probably exposes my bias against "NY Style" pizza and explains why "Chicago Style" reigns supreme in my book.

            As a side note, many people believe that pizza was created in New Haven, CT. Of course, the people that believe this are all from CT, but hearing such a thing prompted me to sample the pizza from one of the two "famous" pizza places in New Haven. While

  • refresh often? yeah, right! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Xtifr ( 1323 ) on Friday July 11, 2003 @09:49PM (#6421691) Homepage
    I'm sure I'll get modded down as a troll for this, but my god!! I was wondering what could be more pathetic than someone hanging out waiting for a new computer store to open. Then, there it was: someone who would sit there clicking refresh in his browser in order to follow the "adventures" of the person hanging out waiting for the computer store to open....
  • Less Than Jake is performing. As well, they are giving away 250 iSight cameras. [apple.com]
  • According to their site:


    EM's Mission Statement
    Our mission is threefold:
    1) To get banned by the Christian Right
    2) To get Slashdotted/Farked at least once
    3) To make lots of money And of course to have fun in the mean time.


    Looks like this little stunt helped them get #2.

    Go get your Mac groove on!
  • Living in LA you can't help but know how great a place third street promanade(sp?) can be. I'm glad these guys love macs enough to camp out for 24 hours, however everything they did seemed to center around finding power. C'mon there had to be something else to do.

    Granted they don't seem old enough for some of what third street has to offer, however I know they at least had an opportunity to meet intersting people during the night hours (as I've met some without even sleeping there), but there's tons bette

  • I was there... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Xeo2 ( 301694 )
    I was one of the guys there, and let me tell you, it was an awesome experience. It wasn't about just going into the store, it was all about the waiting. I wasn't as hardcore as Hal, I only got there 10 hours early.

    Waiting in line, camped out with a bunch of mac users, with network games going on all around and meeting all sorts of new people was really cool. It was the ultimate group experience.

    It's been refered to as the "Cult of Mac", and it's really true. When you get it, you just get it. It was e

  • got a good spot just 2 hours before. (Score:3, Informative)

    by grue23 ( 158136 ) on Saturday July 12, 2003 @03:38AM (#6422886)
    I showed up at 4pm and was maybe 40th in line or so, and I made it into the store with the first group of people allowed in (at 5:45, a little earlier than expected), which included the people who stayed overnight. I have no clue why anybody would stay overnight for that, unless they just wanted to experience sitting around overnight on third street.

    I actually got back into line at 6pm to meet up with a couple friends who got there then, and we got in to the store just in time to see Less Than Jake play.

    Two trips into the store = two t-shirts, a trip to get my powerbook looked at at the genius bar before it got too crowded, a chance to win an iSight, and live music. Score!

  • Why? (Score:1)

    by FsG ( 648587 )
    To quote a certain James Bond movie (Tomorrow Never Dies), the most important part of any news story is not the who, or the where, or the when, but the why. This story is clearly lacking that, and I still have no clue why this is happening. Would someone care to clue me in?
    • Dunno - but it's not just an Apple phenomenon.

      As I recall there were people lined up all day to pick up copies of Windows98, Windows2K and WindowsXP when each was released (typically at midnight).

  • I used to live 3 blocks from there. What a great place to live. Everyone where I live now (East coast) keeps asking why I moved back. :(

  • If someone did this every time a Dunkin Donuts opened up in Massachusetts, they'd be a bona fide homeless person.

  • If nothing else, this is proof that the geek job market is far from recovering...

  • I don't necessarly agree with the guy about camping out for 30 plus hours for just a computer store. But I think the idea of live blogging from a news event or activity is actually kinda cool.

    Think of it as unfiltered and uncensored (excluding personal view here) news report by the people who are actually experencing it first hand (not but some news caster that wants to win the next big award so adjusts the story accordingly) and it is made available to world.

    Ok an opening of an apple store is not s

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