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November 02, 2012

Even Hurricane Sandy Can't Deter the Line at the 5th Avenue Apple Store

By Brittany Walters-Bearden, TMCnet Contributor

As people around the country watch the footage of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation in horror, New York’s Apple (News - Alert) devotees have moved on with their lives. Not even Hurricane Sandy can stop the excitement for the release of the iPad mini. While the release of the iPad mini was not as monumental as the release of the iPhone (News - Alert) 5, it still had a remarkable turnout, all things considered.



Although New York remains in shambles, the Apple Store on 5th Avenue still had hundreds of customers lined up, eager to purchase the company’s new 7.9-inch tablet. Sandy posed more than the usual hurdles: some waiting in line reported spending two hours on the transit system to get there.


Image via Shutterstock

While some saw Sandy as a setback, one Apple devotee, Eytan Friedman, told The Wall Street Journal that Sandy made standing in line easier; “I’m down by Union Square, and there’s no electricity. “[I]t's just very hard to sleep, so I figured I'd get up early and get my new iPad rather than lie in bed and stare at the ceiling." 

How Friedman and the others plan on testing their new iPad Mini out when they get home, once they’ve used the limited battery life, is a question that doesn’t seem to have crossed anyone’s mind.

Although most of the product releases at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue begin at 8 a.m., today’s launch was moved to 10 a.m., indicating that Hurricane Sandy had some small effect on the release. The two hours gave shoppers extra time to arrive, but when the first shopper showed up at 6 a.m., he told the Wall Street Journal that he was surprised that he didn’t find others already there, clamoring for the front of the line. Not even a devastating natural disaster can stop the excitement surrounding a release from Apple.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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