Apple Store North Star: Your reports

I arrived at the line at about 9:40, and by that time, the line was about 50 yards long. By the time 10:00 rolled around, the line had more than doubled and went outside one of the mall entrances.

Not sure how long it took to get into the store, but I'm guessing about 15 minutes, where we were given a small box with the free t-shirt as we walked a gauntlet of high-fiving new employees and many veteran employees of the La Cantera store. For those of us who waited in line for the original iPhone last year at La Cantera, the experience was similarly exciting.

While entering the store, I recognized a woman I saw at the Willow Bend store (Plano/Frisco/North Dallas area) when it opened and for a few years afterward when I used to drive to the store from Wichita Falls.

I later tapped on this woman's shoulder (she wasn't in Apple garb), and told her I remembered her from Willow Bend. She was pleasantly surprised I remembered her and is now overseeing all of the Texas stores.

Later, on the way out of the store, I saw this woman again standing next to the manager of the La Cantera store, who I believe is also to managing the new one, and I thanked them for helping make the Apple experience great.

I know Apple Stores aren't perfect, but they are hands and shoulders above any other retail experience (in my opinion), especially when one compares them to other computer manufacturers. There is simply no comparison.

So, congratulations, Apple, and best wishes to all the new employees. Look forward to visiting the new store again soon.

What a nice experience!

My partner and I got there about 9:10 AM and the line was not too long. The FIRST thing I noticed was there is a MAC store DIRECTLY across from the Apple store! Apparently, MAC is make-up store, but what a nice "coincidence"! Perhaps another "coincidence" is the AT&T vendor outside of the Apple store... I wonder what they will be selling soon??

The great thing about Apples users is once you get us in a line, we talk to each other and we had a great time visiting with the other folks in line. Starbucks was there to selling coffee and pastries, bringing your order to you!!

There was a big commotion at the back of the line then the Apple employees came running down as described in other post so I will not go into that detail again. It was like a pep rally when I was in high school.

We were in the first group getting into the store and again, was as described above to I will not repeat.

The tee shirt is VERY nice for a free shirt. It is a Hanes Beefy-T, nice and thick and as described above.

Once inside the store, I noticed several folks from La Cantera who were there and all that I talked to said they were there just for the opening. I have not moved to 10.5 yet and had decided to finally make the jump and wanted the family pack. Unfortunately, the 10.5 family pack was not available so I will continue to wait a bit longer.

The good news is that I got a FREE copy of Aperture 2. Yes, I did say FREE! I used my $100 store credit from my iPhone and gift card from my parents!

I did take pics with my iPhone, but I do not know how to post them here so if you know, please tell me.

Dale.

I am in shock and awe, joy and bliss. Will post pics soon. Yay for the new Apple store minutes from home!

I showed up around 9:30 or so, and I have to say, it was a rather unusual experience. While waiting in line, the employees ran by a few times, cheering, clapping and giving high-fives to various random people in line. There was an Apple employee filming the event on a Panasonic AG-HVX200 as well. When we finally walked into the store, the employees had formed two lines on either side of the entrance, inside, so you had to walk between them as they were clapping and cheering.

A rather cult-y experience, I have to say. The La Cantera opening was simply an opening, nothing really unusual, people in line, going in, and getting their free shirts.

The shirts are in a slightly different style from the La Cantera shirts as well, there's no bar between the Apple logo and the location, for one. As for the person who stated that the shirts are lame, I disagree, for a free shirt, it's pretty decent. You have to keep in mind that it is just that-- free. I'm just glad the shirts are still black, I would have been disappointed if they started handing out orange, green or pastel blue shirts.

The store itself is nice enough, it's slightly narrower than the La Cantera store, but quite a bit deeper, and it feels more spacious and open, even with a bunch of loons crammed in there.

I went by the new store. Needless to say, it looks and feels the same as the other one in La Cantera Mall. However, i was disappointed with several so called "Genius's". One of them, told me outright, that he is new here (Has to be, store opened today, you idiot!), he brought supposedly a senior guy, who has never heard of "Crossover" , he tried his best to BS me with Fusion and Parallel for Mac and BootCamp..
The third one i talked to about iPhone 3G, new nothing....absolute bunch of idiots....i cant believe the kind of BS they pull off, listening to them, throwing their useless knowledge around on other people. I expected better of AppleStore employees.

I have photos - is there a way to email them to you?

@Corey Keith: The wireless stuff was in the middle on the left.
@Ted: Agreed--North Star is an up-scale mall near Olmos Park, Terrell Hills, and Alamo Heights--neighborhoods with a median income of $87k, $80k and $65k respectively.

I showed up at almost 11:00am and they were still clapping and distributing shirts as you walked in.

@ZeroCorpse -

Apple only builds stores where there is a wealthy enough population to support it, other factors are the percentage of Macs currently installed, the availability of very "high-end" retail space in a Mall or shopping destination and a workforce that knows Macs upon which to drawn from.

University towns already have a Campus Store so the need isn't as great to also build an Apple Store.

Upon looking at Lansing's City Data, you can quickly see the average income is too low to support a Store. ($34,367)

http://www.city-data.com/city/Lansing-Michigan.html

Income levels as a general rule need to be $55-65K before it will show up for consideration of an Apple Store. This will trend down over time of course, but don't hold your breath.

I got there right at 10 when the store opened... of course there was a long line. Not sure on how many people were there but the line was about 200-250 feet long.

Working the store, about 50 employees all clapping in unison and the random run down the line high-fiving people.

As you walk in you were handed a short by someone who didn't seem to be an employee, but hey - I don't care who I am getting my free shirt from.

While i wasn't looking for anything particular I didn't see any wireless components... no Airport Extreme, no Airport Express and no Time Capsule. hmmm.....

Typical layout with Genius Bar at the back... I didn't see a place for onetoone training, however there was a regular display table with four iMacs that seemed out of place.

Oh for the shirt... pretty lame... black hanes shirt - onthe front - Apple Logo w/ text reading North Star.

These crappy sparse stores are losing money hand over fist!