This is Technology Bytes, Episode 29 for September 24th, 2023.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
My name is Joel.
Enjoy, and here we go.
Today’s episode is going to be a little different than normal.
I really just want to tell you a story about my purchase process of the latest releases from Apple.
I think I covered that in last week’s show and told you what I was trying to get.
What I have ended up with is the 15 Pro Max in a blue color and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in the color that it comes in.
I just want to talk a little bit about how I did that purchase.
A little background about who I am.
I don’t really like to order things online.
That just sounds funny coming from a technology nut.
You would think that Amazon would be right in my alley or buying off the Apple Store or whatever.
I’ve never really been that person.
It’s not so much that I can’t get up early on a Friday morning to order the iPhone so I can have it on release day.
It’s that I like to go to the Apple Store.
I like to buy things in person.
I like to see what I am purchasing and touch it and hold it and know that’s what I want.
I really, really dislike returning items.
Here I am, the crazy Apple geek, nerd, product lover, whatever you want to call me, thinking about how do I get this latest product on release day and what is the process going to be.
I already know that I’ve made up in my head that I am going to an Apple Store first thing on Friday morning to stand in line, whatever that looks like, and to see if I can’t get the two products that I want.
The iPhone, oh I’m so sorry, the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Then I’m trying to decide as the week is progressing which Apple Store I go to.
I happen to live in the Phoenix area.
There are a number of stores that are available to me without too much driving involved.
I know I’m lucky in that respect and so I have to decide which store to go to.
Then I have to decide what time to get in line.
Then I have to decide how I’m going to make that happen.
This is how the process went.
The Apple Store that is closest to where I live is also one of the largest by volume of selling stores in the Phoenix area and maybe a larger area than that.
They move a lot of products so I’m like, okay, they’re going to be super busy on release day.
I’m not sure if that’s the store I want to go to.
The store I went to last year when I did this was a little store in a little mall.
I got there real close to 8 o’clock and was still able to get the 14 Pro Max that I was after.
I decided that I need to go to the Apple Store closest to my house and decide if I can talk to a person and ask them what their experience was last year.
On Thursday evening, early afternoon actually, I went to the Apple Store and met with one of the employees and said, hey, what did last year’s opening day look like?
What did the release day look like?
Was there a long line?
What time did it form?
What do you think about availability?
There’s a lot of questions that they can’t answer but I thought I would ask anyway.
She proceeded to tell me that the line went around the corner, around the building and they got here really early.
Some people wanted to spend the night and security wouldn’t let them.
I’m not sure how much of that was true but it did make for a good story.
Then I decided maybe that is not the store for me.
It’s going to be one of the busier stores and maybe I need to go to a smaller Apple Store in a different location that maybe not so many people would stand in.
I came home without a real solid plan at that point.
As an Apple nerd, I get pretty excited about getting new products and sometimes I find it hard to sleep.
This is where the story starts.
I ended up waking up a little bit before 2 o’clock in the morning and felt like I couldn’t go back to sleep.
I got up and in my morning routine, I do a bit of exercise in the morning.
I do a three and a little bit mile walk and then I do some Apple Fitness on the Apple TV and that usually takes about an hour and a half.
At 2 a.m.
in the morning, I am outside walking in the dark.
I decide to stay in the neighborhood where it’s a little more light and a little more comfortable, get done with my walk, get done with my exercise, eat some breakfast and shower and then I decided I’m going to go ahead and head out to the Apple Store.
I’ve decided at this point to drive by the one that’s closest to my house and if the line looks bad, then I’m going to continue on to the Apple Store that I went to last year where the line was not bad and I was able to get my product.
At 4.45, I pull up to the Apple Store and there are about eight people in line and I’m like, okay, that’s not bad.
I should be able to get something if I’m not early.
I park and place myself in line.
I’m ninth in line and now I am waiting for the store to open at eight.
Basically, I have three plus hours to sit there and wait with the other crazy people in line to get my Apple product.
At about 6.45 a.m., the young man standing next to me said, you can order online now and then you can pick a day to pick it up at the store.
This is the store I’m standing in front of at this point.
I’m like, oh, you can.
I had tried that the night before.
It was unavailable.
I got on my phone real quick, entered the product that I wanted.
It gave me availability of a pickup date of the next day, which would have been a Saturday afternoon at about 12.15.
Not bad.
Knowing if standing in line was going to get me a product, I decided to place that order.
I placed the order, paid for it with my Apple card in full, and then tried to decide, do I wait in line to see if I can get one in the next little bit?
I still have over an hour before the store is actually going to open.
Then I decided, well, I’ve been here this long.
I’ve been in line for over two hours at this point.
I might as well just hang out for another hour and see if I can get the same product that I ordered in the store.
The young man beside me who had ordered actually got a later on Friday afternoon pickup.
He was also trying to decide and decided to just hang out and see what happened as we got closer to the 8 o’clock opening.
Well, lo and behold, a little bit after 7, an Apple employee came out and said, Look at all these people waiting for Apple products.
It’s so good to see you this morning.
Then proceeded to explain to us that an Apple employee would be coming through the line, asking us what we wanted, letting us know if it was available, and then giving us an appointment time to come and purchase that product.
I thought, oh, that’s kind of interesting because the store doesn’t open until 8.
The employees start going through the line one person at a time.
At this point, I had moved up to 7th position because two young men had left.
Maybe because they ordered and could pick it up the next day and they thought, why wait here any longer?
They get to me and I said, this is what I want.
I want the natural titanium 15 pro max with 256 gigabytes of storage.
And they said that one’s not available.
We have black and we have blue and maybe white.
And so I said, OK, I can take the blue one.
And so they signed me up.
And then I said, I also want to watch.
So they click the button to get that as well.
And I was on my way and had an 8.45 pickup time for the phone, a 9.30 pickup time for the watch.
So that’s a little bit of a pain.
But now it’s 7.20 and I’ve got another hour and 20 minutes to kill before I can actually get my product.
I thought about going home, but in that day, we were actually moving.
And the place where I’m moving to was about 25 minutes away from the store.
So get home to do what?
Sit for 10 minutes and then drive another 25 minutes back.
So I decided to just stick it out.
And at 8.45, I went in to pick up my order and said, I’ve already purchased a phone and a watch that I can pick up tomorrow.
Any chance I can get that today.
And the person helping me said, no, we can’t do that.
And then I said, OK, then I’ll just cancel that order.
And so they said, well, don’t cancel it yet.
Let’s make sure we can get you your phone and the one that we signed you up for with the watch.
And then they said, well, maybe you can’t get the watch because you have a 9.30 appointment.
And anyway, to make the long story short, which may be too late at this point, I ended up having to cancel my first order, which is a little scary because now I’ve got all of that money on my Apple card and then turn around and purchase the blue iPhone 15 Pro Max and get my Apple Watch Ultra 2.
And by 9.30, I’m back at home and participating in the moving into a new place.
And my watch and phone sit on the table untouched.
And that was killing me.
But all in all, it ended up being a good process.
It was not that big a deal.
Although by 11 o’clock in the morning, I’m already approaching getting my stand hours.
I’ve closed my activity.
I mean, my exercise ring.
I’m very close to closing my activity for the day.
And it’s not even halfway over.
So it’s not very many people crazy like me.
Probably end up being about 20 total people in line at this particular store, which is a very busy store.
And by the time I came at 8.45, there was really no one in line waiting for more product and asking if it was available.
So it didn’t seem like it was all that busy.
But I got what I wanted and I’m happy with it.
I will probably talk next week about setup and some of the things that happened there.
And maybe then I can stop talking about Apple products for a week.
But we shall see what happens.
Thank you for listening to my story.
A little bit drawn out and long, but I thought it was fun to share.
But that is all I have for today.
If you have any comments or suggestions, you can send them to technologybytes, B-Y-T-E-S, at meregfamily.com, M-E-A-R-I-G, family.com.
And I’ll be happy to respond.
Thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes podcast.
I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
