Apple Store Doncaster - Kids eat for free

David Heath
Saturday, 23 May 2009 16:50

Opinion and Analysis

This morning's opening of the latest Apple Store brought the usual 'cast of thousands' out of the woodwork.  Some even had a story to tell.

As Stephen Withers reported earlier, one of the first groups in the queue waiting for the launch was the family who were first in line at Sydney's store opening.  But they weren't exactly the first.  Just in front of them were a group of 4 teenagers who arrived at 8pm the night before - equipped with copious amounts of coke, red bull and all kinds of snacks and a long extension cable to keep the power up to their Macbooks all night long.

Oh, and they also 'accidentally' found themselves locked out of the building for an hour or so when centre cleaners asked them to go outside while the public areas were cleaned and then forgot to bring them back in!

Looking over the hundreds in the queue, they were mostly late teens to early thirties, with a smattering of 40s and 50s.  Interestingly, many of the couples in the queue also had young children with them.  Hopefully not all night!  Although, it's never too early to have one's first Mac.

Inside the store, a very clean, spacious interior, with a 20m frontage, greets the visitor.  Simone, the new store manager, indicated that there were 107 'contact points' within the store (although I could only count 98) where customers could play with computers, phones and other devices.

One of the more interesting areas in the store was the "Just for Kids" Zone.