Yeah, I know this is a blog about the Palm Pre, but I’m also an Apple owner intrigued by the iPad, okay?
So I’m at Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, FL at 9 a.m. to pick up my iPad, and here’s what I see:
The 9 a.m. line was about 50 yards long.
The Apple Store had a single line queued up about 30 yards from the entrance to the store, but they were “checking in” those with reservations. They were taking 10 people at a time (only those with reservations) out of the line to queue up in another line just outside the store entrance. Soon, it was my turn to be picked out of the line to go get my reserved iPad.
While I was walking from the back of the main queue toward the Apple Store and the “reservations” queue, I overheard another employee talking to the people in the front of the main line who didn’t have reservations. He was telling them that the store would only have a small number of iPads left after they took care of all those with reservations, and might only be able to serve others in line to “about here,” as he pointed to a spot about 15 feet from the front of the line!
Not good news for those of you without a reserved iPad!
Anyway, once I was at the “reservations” queue, an Apple employee rechecked my reservation and asked if there was anything else I wanted. I mentioned that, instead of the 32GB unit I had reserved, I’d like a 64GB unit. He said, “Let me find out whether we can do that,” and asked a manager stationed at the entrance. She said that she knew there were some 64GB units in the “unreserved” pile, and that I could have one of those. Cool!
When it was my turn, another employee escorted me to the rear of the store, and went to check on my 64GB unit. He came back empty-handed, saying we had to wait until they “brought them out to the front.” He stayed with me for the 10 minutes it took to get this done, and I paid for my iPad and case using his iPod Touch fitted with a barcode scanner and credit-card swipe reader. Two minutes later I was walking out of the Apple Store with my bagful of goodies, trying to suppress a smile.
Total time spent in the mall: 45 minutes. Nice job, Apple!
And good hunting to all of you without a reservation for an iPad today!
