Those who read iDevice.ro for more than a year I know that last year I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco and Silicon Valley with the help of the Orange Romania and I purchased a terminal iPhone 5 a Apple Store from San Francisco. Unfortunately, this year I did not have the pleasure of reaching one Apple Store, but a friend did it for me and spent a night in front of a store Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), from Munich. His experience for the purchase iPhone 5S it was completely different from the one I experienced last year in San Francisco, and below you have the whole story explained by him. (the videos have only the role of showing the atmosphere of the location, they are not filmed by Alex)
Thanks Alex!
[youtube]http://youtu.be/wEo3whPYHYk[/youtube]
On Thursday I had to stay at home because at 21:00 I had to go to work for two hours. Thus, I could barely get on my way to Munich at 23:15. I arrived at 1:15 in the morning in the city looking for a parking space, but there were only two parking spaces close to the center and close to the Apple Store that were obviously occupied. I tried to park somewhere where, one in hand I'm lucky and the police don't see me so they don't give me a fine and two in hand I don't confuse anyone (firemen, police, etc.).
I walked for about 45 minutes with the navigation in hand, because for me it was the first time I was in Munich and I didn't know the city. While I was walking I was impressed by the city. All the big companies were there (BMW, Mercedes, Fujitsu, Siemens and more), I passed a very big brewery where I could smell the hops and malt and what surprised and pleased me the most was the fact that there were many, many rabbits walking on the street and on the grass. I have never seen so many in one place. You can imagine how it is at our house with 10-20 dogs or cats gathered together, but there were rabbits there. Obviously, no one stopped to caress him. I wanted to take a picture but I knew it wouldn't come out because it was dark.
After a long walk I found that Apple Store and I was shocked at the crowd that was there. The shock with a hint of disappointment because the number of people started to increase while I walked along the line looking for a place where I could wait.
At one point, after a long walk, I found a place and sat down and waited. It was almost 2 in the morning. My luck was that at that time it was quite warm. Or maybe it seemed to me, even now I can't say. While I took out my cans of Coke, the tablet and the book to pass the time faster, I looked left and right and laughed thinking that the tablet and the phone were not from Apple and maybe someone would beat me up. But nobody noticed me, on the contrary, I saw a lot of people with new phones, but from other companies. At one point I realized that I forgot my headphones at home and I was extremely disappointed. I already knew that instead of wasting time more quickly with music or series, it would seem like an eternity standing in line.
I read, played a little and tried to close my eyes maybe for an hour or two but I didn't succeed. I tried not to keep looking at the clock, otherwise I would go crazy. At 4 o'clock in the morning I felt cold. When the wind started blowing it already seemed to me that winter had come, especially since I was dressed in a winter jacket, scarf, gloves and thick ski socks. Many people passed by filming us or taking pictures, wondering how many "crazy people" had gathered. What I could notice was that there were many foreigners around me: Austrians, Russians, Poles, Czechs. I have not seen or heard Romanians.
I hoped that maybe I could talk to someone, that maybe someone would come to me and ask me if I'm also a fan of Apple products, but the cold was not only outside because of the weather, but also in people. I thought that the Apple community is the same as a sports club, which asks you what you have done, how you want to change or anything that gives me the feeling that I am part of a community that is pulling towards the same goal. At least at a sports club my goal is to train, for the pleasure of sports and to win, but standing there I felt very lonely.
After a long time of waiting, it was 7 in the morning. I was very tired because I hadn't slept for a long time and the cold was very tiring. Everyone got up and started walking forward. I was wondering and hoping that maybe they opened the store even earlier, but I realized that people crowded their places to sleep (air mattresses, sleeping bags) and either sat on chairs (those who had them) or started to stand up. We stayed in the same place for almost an hour, after which we started to move a little.
At 8 o'clock, the first people who came out with their phones in hand could be heard from the Apple Store clapping and shouting. At 8:30 an employee from the Apple Store came and informed us that silver and gold iPhone 5S of all sizes were sold. The hope of receiving at least an iPhone 5S was almost nil. But I stayed. They haven't said yet that the black ones are sold and I'm not going home until I hear this! We moved very, very little. Once every 15-30 min we managed to take 2 steps forward. The friend for whom I had to pick up that phone and my father, both from Romania, started calling me and asking me how I was. I was very tired and hopeless. It was getting colder and colder and sometimes it started to rain for a few minutes.
Dad was trying to make me feel better and said jokingly but with the truth: "It's a very good experience for you. Now you know how I stood in line in my youth during Ceasescu's time for a piece of meat or yogurt." I told him that at least he stood in line for food, but why am I standing here? For a phone that, anyway, another one will appear in 6 months, which costs as much as a second-hand car and which is not even for me, but for someone else!
At 11:00 I walked a 5-6 meter road. At one point, the security people were shouting for us to go to the back again because people were blocking the entrances/exits from the buildings and there was no room for the transport vehicles. I was very upset. I stayed for 3 hours to do 5 meters and they send me 10 meters back? No, thanks! I stay here. I talked to several Germans who were also very angry. A lot of people got in front. A German told me that he wants to get two: one for himself and another to sell on ebay. He showed me that the same phone (iPhone 5S – 16Gb), which you can find at Apple for 700 Euros, was sold for 950 Euros on eBay. People are not sane!
I asked one to reserve my seat so I could take a walk. My legs were killing me from standing so much. Again I was shocked how many people there are and how hard it is to move. Approaching the store, I saw many girls who stood close to me in the back row before the store opened and were already close to the store entrance.
I returned to the line. At 11:30 I received a ticket in which I reserved my iPhone. It started to go faster and faster. Already very happy to have received a ticket, I started to read the small text on the back where it was written: "This ticket will not reserve the phone, but is only valid until the available stock is exhausted". What do you mean it doesn't reserve for me? I mean, while I'm sitting here with the ticket in my hand, can it happen that I return home with this ticket?
"Don't think about it!" I was trying to tell myself! "Everything will be fine.".
After an hour I arrived at the store. I took that phone and left from there. 1500 euros for 2 phones and two covers and none of them are for me. Once again: A very good used car from Germany.
I proposed to go to a DHL and send it home, but I didn't know how and went to the car. Until I got to the car, I wandered around the city for half an hour, when I arrived I saw that I had received a fine for illegally parking. It was clear. It just couldn't be otherwise. I drove for 30-60 minutes and felt my body cry out from fatigue to pull to the right and go to sleep. I slept for an hour and a half and got on the road again. Along with traffic jams, I finally arrived home at 18:00 p.m. It's finally over! After about 19 hours it was over.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/gKzUMDYJYUI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://youtu.be/X7KzQGThQTs[/youtube]
