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Grand Opening

Yesterday afternoon, I stumbled upon an article (not sure where) about Apple opening new ‘mini’ stores in smaller retail locations. This reminded me that my local mall has an Apple store going in! My location wasn’t listed in the article as a ‘mini’ location, so I searched around Apple’s site looking for some information. Serendipity struck, as it turned out that today was the grand opening. Not only that, but t-shirts were promised for the first thousand visitors. Excellent! I made a plan to be there when the store opened, at 10 am.

My wife warned me this morning that I should arrive early. I didn’t see a need, since I had not seen or heard any press about the opening. Whoops. When I arrived at 10 am, the line to get in the store was at least 100 yards long, maybe longer. It turned a corner and wrapped around a fountain. Visitors were being admitted in batches, as there was no way everyone present would fit in the store. I didn’t have the time to wait in line, so I bid my t-shirt goodbye and left. Kicked myself for not taking my camera for some pictures of the line.

Had to go to the mall this afternoon to take my daughter to a hair appointment. Once she was delivered, I cruised on down to the Apple Store. Very Cool. Been in one once or twice before. Very tempting to grab an iPod while I was there! I’m currently torn between requesting one for Christmas and waiting until MacWorld Expo in January to see what the latest and greatest iPod will be. Of course, my birthday is in early February :)

Didn’t leave empty handed… I picked up Jam Pack 3 for Garage Band. Didn’t even know this was out (or Jam Pack 2) until I poked around the Apple site today in anticipation of seeing the store. Jam Pack 2 is geared towards Dance/Urban/Hip Hop, with lots of “Remix tools”, bass lines, synths, and drum machines, including several classic Roland drum machines. Not my kind of music, especially when composing. I haven’t loaded up Jam Pack 3 yet, but it’s subtitled “Rythym Section”. I’ll post some more on that once I play with it.

Among the sights at the Apple Store… an employee dressed in fult Scottish Kilt and sporting a (presumably real) tatoo of the Finder icon in the right shades of blue. Kicked myself for not taking my camera twice.

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