“About 2,000 people waited next to the second-floor Shirokiya entrance to get into the new Microsoft store at Ala Moana Center, many of them queuing up before 10 p.m. Wednesday,” Amy Busek reports for the Honolule Star Advertiser.
“Hawaii’s first Microsoft store opens this morning at 11:00 a.m. at Ala Moana Center and the first 2,500 people in line will get free tickets to tonight’s concert at Kakaako Waterfront park,” Busek reports. “The first 200 people were given wristbands that allow them to meet Neon Trees tomorrow, the second act following Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.”
Busek reports, “Jenn Branstetter, a Microsoft social media team member, believes that Microsoft is also a huge selling point for the crowds.”
MacDailyNews Take: She also believes in unicorns, leprechauns, and that the government is watching her at all times. Oops! Er, strike that last one.
Read more in the full article – all about free concert tickets, nary a word about Microsoft products – here.
MacDailyNews Take: People line up at Apple Retail Stores to buy Apple products. People line up a Microsoft Stores for free concert tickets.
Related articles:
Apple wannabe Microsoft paying people $100 to line up for Surface tablets at retail stores – October 26, 2012
Hundreds line up for Microsoft Store ‘grand opening’ – for free concert tickets (with video) – October 23, 2011
Microsoft Retail Stores have to resort to free concert tickets to generate opening day crowds – October 30, 2009
Microsoft opens 4th retail store near Apple’s on iPhone 4 day; lures people with free concert tix – June 24, 2010
Silly Microsoft, they only came for the concert tickets, which even silly old you knew, they could care less about your operating system or products because they dont care about that…
Microsoft should just open new stores in the lobby of concert halls. That will save the concert goers one trip. 😉
Maybe Microsoft should just buy Ticketmaster and StubHub.
Bloody hell, it’s difficult enough negotiating Ticketmaster’s crappy purchasing system on a mobile device, the last thing we need is MS making it even more complex and opaque!
lol, true…if Microsoft ran Ticketmaster they’d run a June 1 McCartney concert on June 2 with a button that said “Start Here.”
Actually, the button wouldn’t say anything. It would just be a red square.
And the tickets would be for Lennon, not McCartney….
As usual, promising something they can’t deliver.
McCarney would dedicate “Yesterday” to Microsoft.
Well why else would they be waiting there? Nothing ELSE to see or buy. “After the tickets, only the sound of crickets.”
Free tickets that is.
Hell, I would almost be willing to stand in line in front of a Microsoft store for free tickets to Macklemore.
Almost.
So, where are the videos of the people who waited in line walking out with their new Microsoft product purchases?
the CGI is being created as we type..patience.
So embarrassing in so many levels. Then again this is Microsoft. LOL
Have they no shame?
Free tickets today, sound of crickets tomorrow!
A rhetorical question? A dig in the ribs? Or the truth?
How pathetic. Have they no shame? I’ve never seen a company so lacking in class. I’m truly amazed Ballmer is still running the show. He is without a doubt the most inept, embarrassing CEO of any large company there is. Microsoft is no longer any kind of threat to Apple, so I can really care less about their competition. Google is Apple’s biggest competitor these days, Microsoft’s too. I really feel embarrassed for Microsoft.
Well, ever since the legal sanctions Microsoft’s scaled back their aggressive tactics considerably, and the menace and bluster that used to serve them well in the field have faded in favour of ramped-up frontal attacks in the consumer theater, having realised almost too late the decided advantage of mobile artillery in the enterprise through the BYOD gambit. They can afford to bankroll quite a few sorties before giving up the ghost, and they are not averse—or embarrassed—to ally with Apple or another firm if they can gain purchase on the ground that’s slipping away. Their Achilles’ Heel, of course, is Ballmer himself. He is anti charismatic, and as a sales whiz he should have vetoed the disastrous ad campaigns for the Surface. To worsen matters, one suspects that Chairman Bill Gates poisons the well whenever Ballmer sets out to draw a bucket himself. Not a great situation, but one that Apple can appreciatively take advantage of.
So why doesn’t Microsoft give away free M$ tablets with every concert ticket purchase?
they tried a similar promotion, but a Surface just won’t fit in a Cracker Jack box.
Store is about about 60 feet from Ala Moana Apple store.
I bet you could count purchases from the those waiting for tickets on one hand.
I bet they were buying APPLE products while waiting for those tickets!
Brilliant move there MS!!!
Did someone say unicorns? Leprechauns, too?! Now we are talking, brothers and sisters.
See, some of us get it. We can see the bigger picture. The hordes of customers (and yes, we can multitask and purchase Microsoft products, and also pick up concert tix at same time, that’s just us being whip smart) are proof that there are many other providers bringing magical joy to tech users around the world.
After your shopping at Microsoft in Honolulu, please join us on Magic Island across from the Ala Moana Center for a special séance where we will conjure ethereal spirits from technology’s past and assist them in rising from the ashes like a phoenix.
And, while on the water’s edge, we may even spot a mermaid, or two. Abracadabra!
Ok, let me see if I get this right..
Thousands line up in front of apple stores in order to buy an apple electronic product, so they are mostly in the electronics.
And thousands line up in front of microsoft Stores to get concert tickets…
So Microsoft is really record company or tower records or some kind of music promoter?
Even I would go into a Micro$oft store for tickets to a Led Zeppelin reunion.
I have an idea. MS should have a “Ballmer Kissing Booth” That should increase opening day attendance by a factor of 10!!! I’m sure of it!!!
That’s the awfullest idea you’ve ever had Jubei. I need a memory erase. Barkeep, leave the bottle.
That would be sort of hard to arrange on this plane.
The. Led Zeppelin reunion.
Sorry guys, I forgot my meds and had a moment of insanity. lol
OK, now you’ve given me a visual of that disgusting displayed Ballmer tongue that is now painfully burning my mind. To get even I’m going to put a song worm in you head:
“Tie a yellow ribbing round the old oak tree,
It’s been 3 long years do you still want me?”
Take that!
-The next day, it will be typical…more employees than customers.
-Daily net revenue from MS store lesser than employee salary.
-Average customer going in to use the restroom.
-Employees secretly owning iPhones.
I wonder if they have an “entertainer” jumping up-and-down on the display cases this time? That was funny. Really funny.
Machine Gun Kelly? Hiring him was a stroke of genius. Audiences love outrageous public displays of inappropriate behaviour. It was a mistake to fire him. Hey, word on the strip is that Kanye West (über Steve Jobs) is very available. Get on it, Ballmer.
Wait a minute—2,000 people lined up for 2,500 free tickets?? They couldn’t even draw enough people to give away all the tickets? Oh, I know! The 500 no-shows were the ones who came for the Microsoft products!
Maybe Microsoft should sell concert tickets instead and GIVE AWAY some cheesy OS as a lame prize to the first 1000 concert goers!
Microsoft = Yesterday’s irrelevancy
Jenn Branstetter, a Microsoft social media team member, believes that Microsoft is also a huge selling point for the crowds.”
2 B sure next time JB may try w/o tickets?
Now if they REALLY want an impressive line, put up some Paul McCartney tickets. I’d even stand in line for that. But I’d put a paper bag of shame over my head while waiting.
McCartney would dedicate “Yesterday” to Microsoft
Or maybe “Fool on the Hill?” 🙂
Hey MDN, whats with the Dream Russian Women advertising on this site? Can’t you all raise your standards just a little bit?????
The story behind the ads: the Russian economy is so abysmally awful and hopeless that young people are signing up for these programs just to get away somehow, anyhow. Don’t go off thinking they are somehow compliant, though.
A few hundred showed up last week at the new store in Natick, MA, to get tickets to a Weezer concert. I’d love to see it today….
I wonder when the headlines will read “200 people queue up outside MSFT store for 200 tickets”. Get smart people. You’re in Hawaii, there’s much better things you could be doing with your time.
Hum.