Honolulu’s second Apple Store opened this morning in Kahala Mall (about 5 miles from the town’s first Apple Store in Ala Moana Shopping Center). I wanted to see the event for myself and, of course, get the free Apple t-shirt given to the first 1000 people. That’s the shirt’s logo in the first photo.
The store was scheduled to open at 10am. I arrived about 8:10am to find about 150 people already ahead of me. I heard (but did not verify) that the first person in line arrived at 3am (a bit too early for me).
The crowd started building quickly and it seems the mall’s security team was not expecting the speed at which the line was growing. We were moved around a bit and security started placing poles with rope rails to keep the walkways clear. I’ll guess there were at least 400 to 500 people in line before the doors opened at 10am.
Apple kept the crowd (at least the segments that could see the store) entertained with a group providing Hawaiian chants, Hula, and a Hawaiian Blessing of the store.
You can see about 2 minutes of video to see a bit of the pre-opening activities yourself.
Excellent. I was #6 in line at the Ala Moana opening. Here's some pics I took at that for comparison.
http://homepage.mac.com/danielmaui/PhotoAlbum12.html
It's always great to see another store open! Thanks!
got there around 9:15 and we were told that there were about 400-500 in line. by the time the doors opened at 10:00, there must have been close to a thousand people...great stuff. not as exciting as camping overnight for the s.f. union square store opening (boy, that was cold), but fun nonetheless...
It was good to see you there, Todd! I posted cameraphotos from the scene here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hawaii/tags/applestorekahala/
And my video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPHCcK98NRo
Thanks for the video, Todd! I was #1 in line, and I DID get there at 3:00 a.m. I felt very dumb at first when I found out I was the only person there, other than the janitors. It turned out to be worth it, however .... And mahalo, too, to Ryan for his photos and video! Keep up the good work, guys! Macs rule!
Sucks, I went to the other apple store and they told me about the opening of the Kahala store yesterday. It really sucked 'cause I so would have been there. Oh well. Lesson learned. Keep up to date with your RSS feeds :-)