Simon Wright and his son Kieran came from Raleigh, North Carolina, arriving at 6:30 am with chairs and PowerBooks in hand, Arman Assa, Apple Campus Representative, NC State University told MacCentral. The Wrights left with a flat panel iMac.
The iMac was on the minds of everybody waiting to get in store. In fact, the first person that purchased an iMac from the store got a round of applause from the line of customers as he wheeled it out of store, according to Sam Krishna, a customer who was waiting in line.
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Apple Store openings have been the cause of long lines at many of their openings and today was no different. “When the store opened this morning at 10:00 am, over 250 people were standing in line, Matt Davis, Apple Campus Representative, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, told MacCentral. “The line wrapped around the side of the store, and then curved off behind the neighboring Barnes & Noble. In the first few minutes, three iMacs were purchased.”
Apple has been scheduling presentations for their in-store theatres on topics ranging from working with the Mac, to inviting third-party developers to talk about their products. Kathie Calcidise, Chief Operating Officer, Apple Retail Stores told MacCentral today that the roll of the theatres will be expanding this year.
“Although the Apple Stores now feature various presentations at the Theater for customers, one of the new features of the Apple Stores for 2002 is going to be the addition of classes or workshops for interested customers,” Calcidise said. “For example, the Durham store will be conducting ‘Getting Started on a Mac’ workshops every Saturday morning at 9:00 am.”
The opening of an Apple retail store is exciting for customers and the staff. The weeks leading up to the opening are very busy, but opening day and the enthusiastic crowd seems to make it all worthwhile for the employees and management at the store.
We are extremely happy with the turnout for our grand opening today,” Mark Rohrbach, Manager of the Durham Apple Store, told MacCentral. “We had a very large crowd of people waiting to get inside the store this morning. We are excited to be here and look forward to providing great products and service to all of our customers.”