It was freezing cold and snow was starting to come down, but at 2:30 p.m. EST there were already several hundred people waiting in line at the new Apple Store on West 14th St. in Manhattan's Meatpacking District, which which opens at 6 p.m. One estimate put the crowd at about 600 people with several hours still to go. - CNET
For Pete's sake people! What's the point?? Are you planning on making a purchase? Order it online or go to one of the other TWO Apple Stores in the city. Do you want to see the store? Go tomorrow when the crowds have thinned out.
Also from CNET: "So why wait? Well, Apple's given some incentives. 'Come celebrate with us this Friday as we'll be giving away thousands of limited-edition posters and commemorative T-shirts,' the store's Web site invited tantalizingly."
Commemorative T-shirts? Heck! Why didn't you say so?!
*sigh*
Now, in the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I went to the grand opening of the Salt Lake Apple Store. HOWEVER...
1. I'd never been to an Apple Store before and the nearest one was several hundred miles away.
2. I showed up about a half hour before it opened.
3. I was looking at it from an integrated marketing perspective just as much as I was looking at it from a (then) Apple Fanboy perspective.
4. Yes, I got a t-shirt. No, I don't know where it is.
That being said, these guys are nuts. 15 hours in the bitter New York cold to walk through a store and look at products you already own.
