Hunting the Elusive

You might have heard about it, but Sydney's flagship Apple Store opened today at 5pm (right after work). I left work early to be there on time to document the crowd waiting for the store to open. The amount of people just waiting to get into the store was epic, bringing a part of the Town Hall area to near standstill. The guards and police who were managing this large logistics operation must have worked pretty hard, even though it was evident they had planned this for some time. (Op pic: HDR version of one of the pictures. The clear glass facade means HDR doesn't do much)

This is the first shot I took (I was taking triplicate exposure bracketing photos for HDR and just for "in case" purposes).

All the staff are lining the three floors of the shop looking down at their worshippers. It's a simple facade, said to be the largest glass facade in the world (or something). The design is also minimalist, with a glowing white giant apple logo. No spiral stairs, no weird architecture -- just a box.

Three levels. The first level is the computer stuff, which has free Internets usage (no seats of course). The second level is for iPod and the iPhone when it comes out here in July. The third floor is the genius bar for tech support.

As you can see, it's pretty crowded on the side walk. Approaching from the other side of the road, I was fooled for a moment: "Is that the queue? It's pretty short eh!"

One more shot from the lights, and I cross the road. The queue extends some way around the side of the building. But that's not the end of the queue.

"Move on, move on!" shout the guards.

A confused man asks, "Where is the beginning of the queue?"

"Next street on sir."

This is what you find when you walk on. The "next street" has two slabs of people, one at the front and one at the back. But that's not the end of the queue. No, the queue continues across the street, where there is an even longer line. I stopped trying to follow the line at this point, but I'll just say that after I had dinner and came back to the Apple store at 8:00 (two and a half hours after the store opened), there was still a long queue.

The queue at the front of the store contains the media and the media-savvy. Here, some guy with a Macbook Pro does wireless internet uploading of his photos to the net. And you can see the approximate location of the store in the city here.\

This is the side of the store. You can see the Apple logo hanging there. I wonder if you can touch it from inside the store... The bottom is a HDR.

Intrepid reporter that I am (identifying with Touhou's Aya for a bit here), I battled the crowds on the sidewalk immediately in front of the store. It was still rather early, so even though there was a bit of a crowd, it wasn't that crowded that it was impossible to stop. The guards still yelled "move on, don't stop!" but nothing can hinder me. I did get warned once or twice "one more photos, and you gotta go" but that's just their way of saying "you should change the angle of your shot".

The good thing about the glass facade is that you can pretty much see right into the store. You can't see the staircase and stuff, which is supposedly frosted glass or something, but most of the store, you get a view right in.

 

Yay, I got some crazy shots of the inside of the level one of the store. The staff appear to have some sort of PDA devices, possibly with access to a knowledge database or catalogue or whatever. On the opposite side of the street, onlookers gawk.

I join them, and set up my tripod to wait for the opening.

Like when photographing the Town Hall, shooting across George Street is a bit of a pain, because of the buses mostly which can be very disruptive. Cigarette lingers in the air, mixes with exhaust. The crowd behind me murmurs at the spectacle.

As the minutes tick down to the opening, the crowd in front of the store gets more and more vocal, with rallying shouts gradually building to a roar.

The staff are still lining the banisters. True to reputation, they look like they have indeed partaken of the Kool-aid. Perpetual highness.

The Telstra shop is seeing the most traffic in their footpath ever, but everyone has their backs to them. The sushi shop this side is doing a roaring trade, and Darrell Lea takes the opportunity and hands out free bags of Apple Liquorice. Damn, it's only when I typed this out that I realised what they were doing.

The opening approaches, and the staff are just getting revved up. It's pretty crazy.

Tripod + 10x zoom from across the street, brings you up to the third level without your feet leaving the ground.

I swear, what the hell are they taking? Cuz I want some. Peripheral section rather more subdued.

I'm glad I came over this side, the crowd on the sidewalk in front of the store has become untenable.

The doors open. Look at the media frenzy!

A whole line of iPod silhouette ads!

A look into the iPod level (second floor).

It's just crazy man.

The customers are in, but the queue is interminable.

Conclusion: the crowds were beyond my expectation. An Asian girl asked me in broken English "Is there a famous people there" and I tell her "no, it's just the store". My words realise the thought which had been at the back of my mind.

Indeed, it's just the store. The turnout for a store opening was simply amazing. The first 2500 people get a T-shirt, but who would line up for more than 3 hours for a T-shirt? Well, if you line up for three hours, it's more than likely you won't be one of the 2500 people first in the door. So let's recap.

There's no special offer, there's no exceptional freebie. But still thousands of people turned up and queued for hours. This in itself is an exceptional thing to happen at a place like Sydney. We're not Singapore or Japan, people. We're laid back and stuff! It's testament to the marketing power of Apple that the opening of a store could crowd two streets and make the masses go crazy.

Of course, I didn't end up going into the store. When I do, eventually, I might take photos, or it might have become such an everyday thing I wouldn't bother.

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