Apple new store in NYC....

The snow flurries ended, the sun went down and the temperature began to drop again just before the grand opening of the West 14th Street (NYC) store this evening. Perhaps it would have warmed us up if we knew celebs
would be attending. The crowd of about 800 on the 14th St. sidewalk
began to spill over onto 9th Avenue, and eventually led all the way
west onto 15th Street. Crowds of passersby began to form about 5 p.m.
as the crowd grew, as workers who were headed home noticed the crowd
and stopped to watch and take pictures. The line had been moved between
bicycle fencing around 3 p.m., and now made three back-and-forth trips
along the 14th St. sidewalk west of the store. As 6 p.m. neared, four
Concierge staffers came outside in the their teal-colored T-shirts to
pump up the crowd. The staffers inside posed for photos on the uppers
levels of the stairs, and then dispersed to their work stations to
greet the incoming visitors. At 6 p.m. the security team motioned in
the crowd with the admonition, “Slow…slow,” and we
went inside to a deafening
roar–clapping and yelling and music–to grab our T-shirts
and poster tubes. Three stories above, staffers crowded the rail and
rimmed the staircase to provide applause and excitement. The crowd
mostly made for the third floor where you redeemed any prizes, or hung
out on the ground floor. And then everyone spotted Mary J. Blige on the second floor, palling around with Whoopi Goodberg. They both signed autographs and Blige posed for photos. It seemed that most people were more interested in the prizes
and celebrities than the rest of the store, and there seemed to be
little buying. By the time I left at 7:45 p.m. the line reached
substantially west on 15th St. behind the store–I hand counted
over 1,600 in line, with nearly 100 people standing around just
watching. Check the comments for more info and also full report that includes photos.

Technorati Tags: TONYLIMO, APPLE, NYC

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