“Apple launched its thirteenth Apple retail store in the UK on Saturday 24 November in Exeter’s Princesshay centre,” Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.
“With sub-zero temperatures the night before, a queue didn’t begin forming until 7am, reports Macworld UK reader, Matt Aiken. He reports that while the queue took time to form, by the time the store opened it was ‘longer than it looked,'” Evans reports.
Full article here.
Matt A. has posted video of the grand opening on YouTube:
Direct link to the video via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvu34kszhw8
Matt’s blog post describing the event, including photos of the store, here.
Calendar of events, address, directions, and more info about Apple Store Princesshay here.
Nice! The stream of red shirts reminded me of the classic circus clown car. But hey, at least every customer gets his or her own salesperson!
I’m as big an Apple fan as de next dog, but all of that red-shirt screaming and hollering kind of reminds me of a Polyphonic Spree concert.
Hey, I keed, I keed.
I love cults.
Oh gosh!
Toooo overexited! I would rather wait for the second day! One could beleieve to fall into some babtist church or some other religious histeria! ;(
I love the psychological undertones of the whole concept. Every staff member is there to boost excitement about the launch to ensure people like us who read about it, hear about it, word of mouth, etc, all believe Apple takes launches of such events as a big deal. That “big deal” concept turns into guerilla marketing quite quickly and effectively.
Whether you think it’s over the top or are even put off by it, next time you hear about an Apple store opening just ask yourself… what do you expect to happen? A lineup, crowds, give-aways? End result, lots of chatter/exposure. Well done.
the whole thing seemed typically “american” and some of the customers looked a bit uncomfortable with all of the screaming.
That was worrying – they sounded like they were a bunch of Steve Monkey Man Ballmers in action…
“With sub-zero temperatures the night before,”
For you Yanks, that meant it was 30° Farenheit
It’s an American company!
The more reserved British are not used to being excited about things.
Hey ‘almux’ – I’d be more worried about being able to spell than ‘religious histeria’ if I were you.
Exeter is a lovely town, the County Town of Devon, but I wonder why Apple chose it for their latest UK store. Small population (it does have a university), long distances between other urban centres..all a bit of a mystery.
@Steve: You can bet that Apple did extensive market research as to the placement of that store. It could be the distance from other Apple stores as well as regional interest in Apple products. Unfortunately, since Apple does not break down it’s sales by store for the public, we’ll never know for sure how well that one particular store is doing.
I promissed myself: As much as I love Apple, I will always avoid these kinds of scenes.
@ Macaday
“That was worrying – they sounded like they were a bunch of Steve Monkey Man Ballmers in action…”
Sadly, that was exactly what i thought when i first saw it.
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