Apple Store #1

[e.mkeene]

> Apple Store in Glendale (Apple Store #1!) on Friday during the Panther 
> promotion.

Sorry to disillusion you but the Glendale store was the second Apple 
retail store opened. It was the first one on the west coast.

The first Apple store opened was the Tyson's Corner store in Northern 
Va. It opened at 9am EST and Glendale opened the same day at 9 am PST 
which means the Tyson's store opened first (3 hours before Glendale 
did).

I was on staff at the Tyson's Store and I was stationed  at 8:30 am at 
the very first computer area  just inside the door with the new dual 
usb ibooks that had only been announced 3 days before the store opened. 
We had a total of 50 of the brand new ibooks to sell and we sold out 
within an hour and a half. Many of them were sold sight unseen because 
the lines were 4-5 hours long and a staff member circulated outside 
with an ibook sign up sheet. We had walkie talkies and we kept her 
updated as each one was sold inside.

The Mall and the security people we hired could not believe the size of 
the lines and how happy and polite the people were despite the enormous 
wait just to get in the store. Many people brought their laptops and 
created impromptu net surfing parties with the people immediately 
around them. Lots of them took pictures and using our open T1 network, 
posted the pictures on their webpages while they were still in line 
waiting to get in.

It was a horribly hot day but the lines were so long that after they 
snaked all the way around the huge mall on the inside, they were 
diverted outside and encircled the outside also. People arriving to 
shop at other stores, stopped to find out what was going on and many 
joined the lines out of curiosity. The first week we were open we had 
visitors from all over the country and many foreign visitors also. We 
had 2 guys who drove for 18 hours straight from northern Michigan to 
DC, stood in line for hours just to get in the store for a few minutes 
before they had to leave to drive straight back home and get to work in 
time.

I know this was probably much more than any of you wanted to know but 
our staff was extremely proud and honored to be selected the first 
store to open. Most of us had been working on a volunteer basis for 
many years before this to promote Macs with the local retailers and to 
provide their customers with a support system after purchasing Macs so 
I just could not let this slide by. Thanks to everyone for your 
indulgence of this off topic bit of Apple history.


Mac Computer Show and Sale December 13th
Info at www.wap.org