Here we go again. Pardon me while I get even more nerdy than usual. This is the eve of the closest thing I have to a religious holiday, so bear with me. I’m not suggesting that anything I’m about to say is for the normal, average, reasonable folk who have lives to lead and better things to do. This one is for the ultra-geeks. Everyone else can stop reading now.
I’m about to go to bed, so that I can wake up super early and get into the iPad line tomorrow. Is this crazy? It’s 2012. I’ve had two iPads before. And I could have pre-ordered my iPad online for a guaranteed delivery tomorrow. Why get in line?
Okay, the fact of the matter is, if you want an iPad as early as possible, if you want to maximize the amount of time you’ll have with your iPad on day 1, and minimize the amount of time you spend waiting around for your iPad, there’s only one low-risk way to go about it. And that’s to get in line at an Apple Retail Store.
First, if you’re lucky enough to live in an area like I do with multiple Apple Stores, pick one that’s close by, yet not the most popular store in the area. Here in San Francisco, that means Chestnut Street. Why? Because you can get there later and be closer to the head of the line than at Stockton Street. At Stockton Street, people are usually lining up before rush hour the night before. At Chestnut Street, there’s only a few nuts at the front of the line most of the night.
Why not choose an even more obscure store, like the Stonestown mall, or further out into the Bay Area? Because the longer it takes to drive there, the earlier you have to get up to make it before the line gets too long. You have to find a decent compromise. And anyway, I don’t like malls, so Stonestown is out for me.
I find that about 4 hours before opening is plenty of time to be within the first 20 or so customers at Chestnut Street. Often, I’ve been among the first ten by getting there just four hours before opening. That’s what you want. Being near the front of the line means that from the time the store opens until you’re back in the car is minimal. Usually I’m out within 15-20 minutes or so of opening.
Now, tomorrow they’re opening at 8 am, so that means I’ll get in line around 4 and have my iPad in hand by 8:15, and I’ll be back at my house before 9 am, loading up my new toy.
There’s NO WAY the FedEx guy is getting here that early.
So if I had preordered, I’d be waiting until at least 10am, and probably more like 3-5pm for my new iPad to get delivered. Maybe as late as 7pm, considering it’s going to be a busy day for them. And I’d be cursing the delivery guy all day while I was waiting. I can’t handle that sort of stress.
So why do so many preorder instead? They are always hoping against reason that their iPad will arrive a day EARLY, like that one fluke that happened to a few people when the first iPad was released. That’s never happening again, but it won’t stop them from dreaming. Which is fine by me; just means shorter lines tomorrow morning.
Others suggest that you can get to the store sometime just after opening, and even though you’ll be a couple hundred people back, you’ll still get out in less total time, because the line will move faster than the four hour wait before the store opened. True, but you won’t be home until long after I’ve been playing for several hours. I’m not interested in total time spent; if that’s your goal, then pre-order for delivery. What I want is to get the iPad as early as possible. And for that, the good old-fashioned line yields the highest probability of success.
Besides, the Stores are fun. Waiting in line is always a good time. People walk by and think you’re out of your mind, and you are. But you get a sense of community there. You have conversations with a few like-minded strangers. And it only happens a couple of times a year. This is San Francisco, for crying out loud. People wait almost as long every Sunday for eggs at a trendy restaurant. Is it really THAT nuts to wait a few hours for an iPad?
