This morning at the Apple Store at Carlsbadistan’sForum Shops nearly 500 people were cued up and waiting for the doors to open at 7 AM. Some had been waiting all night, others had arrived in the early morning hours. The line for those without a reserved phone ordered was cut off by employees at approximately 6:30 PM.
The hot tip for those of us who lag–at 5 PM all the phone that people reserved but didn’t pick up will be up for grabs to the first customer. We may have to try that.
Shoppers in theApple Store at the Forum At Carlsbad this afternoon (April 16, 2010) were startled by a shrill alarm seconds before seeing two white males in their late teens or early 20s run from the store.
“We saw them walk in and they looked a little bit sketched out,” one shopper said. “Then when I heard the alarm and saw them running it kind of made sense.”
The men ran south to the parking lot behind the Sur La Table store with several Apple employees in pursuit. Bystanders called out which way the robbers ran, but just as the employees got the parking lot, the men came speeding right back through the mall parking lot in their black primer Nissan where helpful citizen copied down the license number as the car passed.
Workers, who first believed the thieves had stolen a popular, new iPad, eventually discovered that only two iPhone 3GS had been ripped from a display table near the front of the store.
“They really were the worst criminals ever,” said one shopper. “But I’m glad no one got hurt.”
Those who didn’t pre-order an Apple iPad were stuck hoping that someone who did wasn’t able to come in and pick theirs up because the Carlsbad Forum Apple store was completely sold out by mid-morning.
At 1:30 PM one woman was already waiting by the door with hopes that at 3 PM when any unclaimed reserved units are released there will be one for her. “If there’s only one, it’s mine,” she said.
Meanwhile inside the glass doors a crowd who had waited in line for up to 15 or 20 minutes were surrounding the iPad table laughing, talking, and scrolling Apple’s newest fetish product with their fingers.
We checked to see how Carlsbadistan looked on the iPad. It looks sweet!
The Carslbadistan Apple Store opening on August 16, 2008 was almost bigger than Christmas for us and while we could easily have filled 25 days of Carlsbadistan Christmas from this store alone, we’ve decided to narrow it down and make it easy: the perfect gift from the Apple Store this Christmas is the 27-inch 3.06GHz iMac for $1,699.00.
As many reviewers have pointed out, the luscious screen alone is worth half the cost of the computer. And while others complain of the higher price being an “Apple Tax,” once you realize the tech muscle this elegant all-in-one computer packs it’s obvious that it is a Christmas inside and out.
One word of warning: Don’t let Santa take this out of the box before Christmas or it might not make it under the tree at all.
When the doors of the new Carlsbad Apple Store at The Forum opened for customers the first time this morning at 10 AM Elizabeth Jean DeBoer, of the Oceanside Mac User Group was the first person in the store.
“I’ve been here since 4:20 AM,” she said from her comfortable chair before the doors opened. “I’m going to upgrade my iPhone to 3G and I waited until this store opened because I didn’t want to go to Fashion Valley.”
DeBoer entered the store through a gauntlet of more than 40 enthusiastically screaming, clapping, carousing Apple retail employees all outfitted in their matching orange and turquoise T-shirts with the words “I know people” screened on the front of them.
It was a bit of a madhouse actually as each person was welcomed into the store as if they were a high school football player entering the field of a state championship. It was just a continuation of the welcome everyone in line got at 9:50 when all the employees charged out of the front doors of the store and ran down the line of some 200 customers high-fiving them all and yelling the whole way.
The commotion was distracting regular mall shoppers as they tried to find parking. One attractive woman in big glasses leaned out her window or her black Porsche Cayenne to ask was was going on. When someone told her they were waiting for free T-shirts she couldn’t believe it. “All these people are standing in line for a free T-shirt,” she replied with a look of shock. “I thought all the iPods were 10 percent off or something.”
The Carlsbad store is the newest member of the Apple family of more than 200 retail stores worldwide. And while the Carlsbad store’s General Manager Audrey Todd wouldn’t say exactly how many employees her store has (or how many of them are from Carlsbad) she was happy to say that “Apple is always hiring.”
Stores hours are 8 AM to to 9 PM (Sundays 9 AM to 6 PM) and like all Apple retail store it features The Genius Bar, One To One weekly training, Personal Shopping, Workshops and Youth Programs.
For all the details, and more photos follow the jump (click them to view full size).
For more than a week we’ve been getting news tips telling us that the Apple store at the Carlsbad Forum was opening on August 16, 2008. Being good journalists, however, we wanted to check with the Apple PR before we said anything. Let’s put it this way: we did get one out-of-office reply.
Now, it’s official. On August 16, 2008 at 10 AM the doors of the Carlsbad Apple store will open. Here’s what they said in their official email (which we did not get).
Come to the new Apple Store, Carlsbad, and bring your curiosity. It’s the place to test-drive any Mac or iPod, experience iPhone, and catch free workshops to learn all the latest tips and tricks. When you get there, find our Concierge in the orange shirt. The Concierge is your guide to everything from checking in for an appointment to instant checkout. And if you’re one of the first 1000 visitors, you’ll get a free Apple T-shirt.*
Today, we cruised by the store and peeked in through the doors on the front of the big black box. Inside we could see a completely kitted-out Apple store loaded with product and employees getting ready to start selling. If you’re like us, then we’ll probably see you in line early Saturday morning waiting for the free shirt.
Apparently the new Carlsbad Apple Store at The Forum is no longer a surprise. One thing we can say is that the iPhone lines at this location were considerably shorter than they were at UTC yesterday on iPhone Friday.
For how that went, check out this post from a blogger who lives in Carlsbadistan.
A Carlsbadistan reader did exactly what we should have been doing all along. He walked right in the back door of the new Apple Store at The Forum Shopping Center, snapped a few pictures, and did a little reporting.
The only slight delay in construction is they are waiting for tile and panels. That was the information the construction supervisor gave me. He asked me who I was I said I was from the Cupertino office, what he made of that was strictly his interpretation.
We’ve been keeping tabs on the construction going on at The Forum Shopping Center in Carlsbad because it will soon be home to Apple’s newest retail store.
Right now it’s just a big black box. While we were hoping that this location would be open in time for the iPhone 3G launch on July 11, a sneak peek inside the store suggests that we’ll all be waiting a little longer than that.
Then again, who knows. Apple has worked magic in the past and we are talking about the launch of the Jesus Phone 3G with GPS. So anything is possible.
[Editors’ Note: Always click the photos to super-size them.]
It looks like the typical alley layout for Carlsbad’s new Apple Store at The Forum Shopping Center, but that hasn’t stopped the secret keepers in Cupertino from erecting an enormous black wall to keep our prying eyes out of the mix.
By peering through a couple cracks in the facade we could see the back wall taking shape, but completion still appears to be weeks or months out. Speed the plow, will you.
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