Krissy

Sydney Apple Store Grand Opening

All I can say is WOW. The Apple store is AWESOME. I haven’t been to an Apple store before; so I don’t really have anything to compare it with. It’s apparently the second largest store in the world.

So the opening was at 5PM today (19.06.08). Today during lunch I wandered down to have a look and see how many people were lined up. There didn’t seem to be too many people, just a few around the corner. I took a photo of the Apple and went back to my course.

I was able to leave my course at 4PM, so I walked down and the line still seemed so short. Until a security guard goes “the line is around the corner” - so I walk around the corner and there are these barricades set up and there are SOOO many people. Initially I was in the last barricaded section, but after a few minutes was able to move forward to the next one because they made people squeeze up. So stood there for about 1/2 hour, txting my friend and twittering and plurking. Funnily enough, I saw people using twitter and plurk! LOL!

About 4.30, all these Apple staff come along running, I think they were basically doing a lap of the block. They were cheering and high-5’ing the crowd.

After that it was pretty much no action, just standing and waiting.

They had someone handing out free coffee and someone else handing out Nudies.

It was now after 5 and we slowly started moving forward. It was interesting, because we had to cross the road to reach the next barricade, and then after that when we went down King St, we had to go single file and they had all these security guards blocking off the general pedestrians. There were some people trying to jump in the line but the security guards got them pretty quick!

So finally was nearly near the corner of George Street..

And finally!!! I can see the Apple store…

There was a lot of people inside…

So get to pretty much the front of the queue, and they have Apple staff members clapping and cheering. [Sidenote: One thing I learnt from this is my phone takes really crappy videos.] So I filmed this, plus actually walking into the store! Whilst standing there, it started to spit rain. I kept thinking ‘hurry up I don’t want to get rained on!’

I managed to score a t-shirt, so I guess I was one of the first 2,500 people into the store :)

Now onto photos of the store itself! The ground floor has all the computers - Macbooks and iMacs.

Then you walk up these really cool stairs. Look for a photo of them online without people on them, they look really nice. I took another video as I walked up them.

The second level is iPods and accessories, AppleTV, and software.

Now, I just want to say how much I have fallen in love with the iPod Touch. I haven’t actually held one before and played with it (stores here that sell them keep them locked up in a counter so unless you are interested in buying, you can’t just play with them). This is another reason I think the Apple store is so great, you can really play with the products and get a feel for them. Now this makes me want an iPhone even more, because the Touch is basically an iPhone, minus the phone (as if you didn’t know that).

On the second floor you can see the big Apple right in front of you.

You can also peer over the edge to the ground floor. By now it was raining pretty solidly, so I was pretty glad I got inside when I did!

You go up some more glass stairs to the third floor, which is the Genius Bar. It looks pretty cool, will be good to go to some of the free sessions/workshops they have. Also, I have to mention how friendly the staff seemed. I guess it is their job, but with all the people there and how hectic it was, I am sure there was a bit of stress on their part. I guess we’ll see how good that upholds once the opening hype dies down.

So after that, I was getting pretty tired, plus my phone was LOW BATTERYing me every minute, so I headed on home. I had to wait 40 minutes in the rain for my bus. Now my bus is scheduled to come every 15 minutes. But because my bus stop is on the same street that had people lining up for the Apple store, it created havoc on the traffic.

So over an hour later I get home (usually its like 15 minutes from the city, grr) and I could open up my t-shirt. It is pretty big so I don’t think I would ever wear it, but it’s a nice memento. Or I could sell it on eBay, I saw one up there and the bidding was already at $90. The person posted the auction from inside the Apple store. LOL!

And that’s it. I’m absolutely shattered now! But I think it was worth it to go. May head back there on the weekend to have another look but I have a feeling the queues will still be there whilst the shop is just new.

They actually have another Apple store opening at my local shopping centre (even closer to home!) so I will definitely be checking that out when it opens but it won’t be as cool as the city store because it’s inside the centre and won’t have the cool glass frontage and it won’t be as big.