Greg Packer, who showed up yesterday, June 25 at 5am EDT, and David Clayman front New York City’s Apple Store Fifth Avenue iPhone line, Caroline McCarthy reports in the CNET News Blog.
“When I first showed up at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store earlier this afternoon, I didn’t spot anyone waiting in line yet. That’s because I didn’t spot the one person in line, who’d gotten there at 5 a.m. EDT. Security personnel for the building, however, have mandated that Camp iPhone be located off to the side of the building, out of sight of people who are approaching the Apple Store from 59th Street (the nearest subway stop),” McCarthy reports.
“The two guys in line (there are actually three, but Packer’s friend was offsite at the time) couldn’t have been more different. Packer, a retired highway maintenance worker from Huntington, N.Y., is the sort of person you’d expect to find waiting in a line for the latest gadgets. He’s after the iPhone partially because he’s an Apple fan, and partially because it’s the hottest item on the market and he wants one. But he’s no eBay opportunist, he assured me–he actually wants to keep it. He’s also a seasoned “waiter,” having stood in line for the PlayStation 3 last November at the Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island,” McCarthy reports.
“Clayman, on the other hand, looks exactly like the sort of person you’d expect to see waiting for an Apple product. A recent University of Chicago graduate, he’s slight and soft-spoken and wears the black-frame glasses found on many a Genius Bar employee. But the funny thing is, Clayman doesn’t actually want the iPhone. He’s blogging the experience (http://iphoneadventure.blogspot.com/), hoping to learn a bit about New York before he starts a full-time job. ‘My parents thought I was nuts when I told them,’ he related to me, adding that he’s planning to buy the iPhone and then sell it and donate the proceeds to the Taproot Foundation,” McCarthy reports. “That seems very Apple of him. Bono would approve, I’m sure.”
Full article, with photos taken last night, here.
NERD ALERT!
Greg is originally from Green Bay where he worked in a candy factory making chunky treats rich and flavored with cocoa.
“The two guys in line (there are actually three, but Packer’s friend was offsite at the time) couldn’t have been more different. Packer, a retired highway maintenance worker from Huntington, N.Y., is the sort of person you’d expect to find waiting in a line for the latest gadgets.
“Clayman, on the other hand, looks exactly like the sort of person you’d expect to see waiting for an Apple product.
Doh!
“The two guys in line … couldn’t have been more different. Packer … is the sort of person you’d expect to find waiting in a line for the latest gadgets… Clayman, on the other hand, looks exactly like the sort of person you’d expect to see waiting for an Apple product.”
Well, they may be very different, but their line-waiting patterns sure are similar. And that’s kind of what the article’s about, isn’t it?
Any bets on whether or not these guys attend Star Trek conventions…
Just my $0.02
I bet Clayman will get abunch of free iPhones. His agenda is much more selfless than the beergut dude. I bet he won’t be sitting so close to the beergut dude in a few days. Closepin, anyone?
that and Greg Packer likes to be first in line for stuff. there’s even a Wikipedia entry on him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Packer
Any bets on whether or not these guys ever dated a female (human)…
And then when they get their phones they probably have no friends to call but each other…
LOL.
GAL.
This guy is a professional, it’s his thing…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Packer
Well, they might get a phone.
After all, there are only 20 or so phone per store from everything I’ve read.
My .02cents of the day.
At all queue’s of inaugural events, the first place should be designated as “Packer’s place”.
If Mr Packer himself is not there, then whoever got there before him will be declared as having collard packers place.
Hopefully this will allow him to slow down and finally retire having secured himself a place in History.
Greg Packer: “It’s my thing, BABY!”
I bet Apple just gives these first two or three people a phone when they cross the stores threshold, I would anyway.
It is a bit verbose and stinks of revisionism, that some regular posters to this site can be calling other people NERDS …