Line for Boston Apple Store stretches four city blocks
- May 15th, 2008
- Read 3024 times
- 13 Comments

Oh, hello there. I’m patiently waiting for the new Boylston Street Apple Store to open here in Boston. Did I need to show up four hours early? Probably not, but I just can’t resist sitting in an outdoor food court while pigeons buzz within inches of my fragile body. Seems nobody told them about the food chain and how humans are atop said food chain. Anyhoo, you might be interested to know that the line for the grand opening of the Apple Store stretches a country mile! Four city blocks to be precise.
A few randomly snapped photos after the jump.

Here’s the view from the end of the line at Commonwealth Avenue. This photo was taken at about 3:00, roughly three hours before the doors open. See the people way down the line there? They’re there, trust me. The line’s filled out a bit more, too. I’ll grab another photo as we get closer to game time to see if Apple’s got the mojo to fill out all four blocks. I’m guessing it’ll fill up. We’ll see, though.
UPDATE: The police widened these barriers out to two lanes and the people were waiting all the way down to Comm Ave. The above photo is from about 8:00, after the store had been open for two full hours already. Insanity, I tell you.

Here’s the front of the line. I overheard the guy who’s at the head of it all say that he’s been here since yesterday. Good for you, my main man.

Here’s the front of the store. The line starts to the right. The gigantic security guard standing there has been surprisingly nice and helpful so far. I watched for a while as clueless passers-by tried to just walk right into the store. Two college kids laughed when he wouldn’t let them in and showed them the line. “You guys will be open tomorrow, right?” they bellowed. Ah, to be in college again.

I present to you the front of the Apple Store — the “facade” as it were. The store is three stories high; computers and laptops on the first floor, ipods and other gadgets on the second floor, and the Genius Bar on the third floor. It’s the biggest Apple Store in the US. Take that, former biggest Apple Store! God dammit, I’m pretty sure a pigeon just touched my ear with its wing. Sick.

And finally, here’s the Apple Store from afar. The roof has grass on it, I’m told. The kind you mow, not the kind you smoke.
So that’s it for now. I’ll be inside in a couple hours. If you’d like me to look for anything in particular or if you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try to find out for you.









dwalk51 (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Look for steve for me will ya? Ask him if he can hold onto one of the new iphones for me. Thanks.
Dave (Who am I?)
2 months ago
i wish i had one next door to me
thebonafortuna (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Can you look for somebody sane enough not to sit in a line to get into a store? $50 says you won’t find anyone.
Doug Aamoth (Who am I?)
2 months ago
There were a lot of “regular” people who were dumbfounded at the idea of people standing in line waiting for a store to open. They were pretty agitated — angry, almost. They kept saying things like “Who would wait in a line like this?” and “These people must really like computers.” It was pretty funny watching people watch OTHER people wait in line.
Jim (Who am I?)
2 months ago
4 blocks sounds long but 300 people doesn’t, considering it is Boston. I got that number from wired btw.
Doug Aamoth (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I left at around 8:00 or so and the last count I heard was something like 1,300. I’m not sure if that meant 1,300 had gone through the store already or there were 1,300 total people in line. There were still a lot of people in line when I left, though.
Chuck (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Why?!?!
ajadoniz (Who am I?)
2 months ago
zombies.
osric (Who am I?)
2 months ago
OK, that is so not a mile! It’s not even four blocks! That’s two blocks (each block has an alley down the middle). A mile is from Arlington Street to Mass Ave, and this is about one-tenth of that distance. The distance measuring tool on Google maps shows the line to be about 650 feet. The line kept getting wider and wider since they couldn’t cross Comm Ave. during rush hour, so by the time 6 pm rolled around it was at least 10 people wide. I stopped counting at 350 people. They were still giving out T-shirts when I walked by later at 8:15 PM, and the line still went around the corner!
Doug Aamoth (Who am I?)
2 months ago
“Country” mile. “Country” mile. Let’s keep it together here.
srikanth (Who am I?)
2 months ago
but why are you people standing in the line? What are you plannin to buy? I just dont get it.
Arthur (Who am I?)
2 months ago
I don’t usually comment on gadget blogs, but goddamn, this is one of the funniest posts I’ve read in a long time. You can thank the pigeon for that.
Rob (Who am I?)
2 months ago
Sooooooo, the store is only open today ? First customer gets a T-shirt ? Apple fanbois are afraid the apples aren’t ‘fresh’ anymore next week ? I don’t get it.