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Apple Retail Store Opens in London (Pictures)

Apple Store UK lineI braved a chilly London night to check out the line for the new Apple store in London. The line started at around 5pm on Friday (the day before). By sunrise those that were waiting for goodie bags were out of luck as only the first 300 knew they would get one.
10 minutes before the store opening there was a line of 3-4 thousand people coming from afar as Naples in Italy. Number one customer Stormy from Dallas picked up the first black bag and promised to give the gifts to his housemates in London for putting him up. (You can see more of his posts as StormyShippy.com.)
By the end of the damp November day they had come from far and wide. Estimates vary but up to 4000 people waited in line to get into the store and boy do we know how to queue in Britain. The fabled goody bags stuffed with iPods came and went (no one got one), just a sack full of stuff (keyboard, mouse, iSight, software). But for all the fanfare, laughter and tears (yes, people really do break up at the sight of a row of G5 iMacs) there was one word that summed it all up – community.
People were talking together sharing stories about computers and how they use them, helping each other file stuff, and really showing up all those dour PC World stores we have across the UK. It really was quite an event, and let’s hope for us over here in Blighty that one may never more bemoan the lack of Apple support again !
P.S. No iPod socks though, only a sample -shame damn shame as they really are cool.
Click through for the pictures…


I braved a chilly London night to check out the line for the new Apple store in London. The line started at around 5pm on Friday (the day before). By sunrise those that were waiting for goodie bags were out of luck as only the first 300 knew they would get one.
10 minutes before the store opening there was a line of 3-4 thousand people coming from afar as Naples in Italy. Number one customer Stormy from Dallas picked up the first black bag and promised to give the gifts to his housemates in London for putting him up. (You can see more of his posts as StormyShippy.com.)
By the end of the damp November day they had come from far and wide. Estimates vary but up to 4000 people waited in line to get into the store and boy do we know how to queue in Britain. The fabled goody bags stuffed with iPods came and went (no one got one), just a sack full of stuff (keyboard, mouse, iSight, software). But for all the fanfare, laughter and tears (yes, people really do break up at the sight of a row of G5 iMacs) there was one word that summed it all up – community.
People were talking together sharing stories about computers and how they use them, helping each other file stuff, and really showing up all those dour PC World stores we have across the UK. It really was quite an event, and let’s hope for us over here in Blighty that one may never more bemoan the lack of Apple support again !
P.S. No iPod socks though, only a sample -shame damn shame as they really are cool.
P.P.S. A day like this brings out all sorts to the party, but worth a look by Glen Keller from London is one man’s struggle in a PC world.
Updated 11-23-04:
I just heard back from Apple unique points to the UK store are:
It has the highest number of Macs on the floor out of all the stores
Over 150 accessories – they sell England flag iPod cases 🙂
Over 500 software titles
Has the longest Genius Bar of all the stores
Traffic figure for the first week in soon
Some pictures:


Apple Store UK line
The first part of the line round the corner at 9 a.m.
10 minutes to go
10 minutes to go and the Apple staff parade outside
Store Manager John O'Grady
Store manager John O’Grady (no relation 🙂 -Ed)
The Chosen Few
Some of the chosen 300 who got a goody bag
What, no iPod?
“What, no iPod in my goodie bag?”
Only 5 but already keeping the faith
Only 5 but already keeping the faith

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.