The Apple Store, San Francisco

When Ulan McKnight's wife asked him how he would like to celebrate his 40th birthday, he responded without hesitation, "I'd like to be the first customer at Apple's flagship store in San Francisco." His wife, knowing Ulan to be a Mac fanatic, knew exactly what that meant. You see, Ulan had been customer #1 at the opening of Apple's SOHO, New York store.

Ulan is the founder and CTO of yvod, a Berkeley-based company which creates web sites for e-commerce. We caught up with Ulan at 6 p.m. on Friday night as he was getting ready to hunker down for a second night on the sidewalk outside Apple's new store. His wife and one-year old son had just stopped by to sing "Happy Birthday" and share a birthday cake with him in advance of his February 28th birthday.

Ulan McKinight

When we asked him why he was willing to spend two nights out on the streets to be customer #1, Ulan told us, "I like my Mac. It's not just a computer to me. I really like it and I become attached to it. It's not like a Dell that you trash after two years when a new faster model comes out. I also enjoy the community that the Macintosh creates. I meet a lot of great people here. We stay up all night and talk about the Mac."

We agree with Ulan. The Mac has soul. It feels different from other computers because you can sense the people behind the computer.

We look forward to getting a report from Ulan after he is the first to walk through Apple's doors tomorrow morning. We will post his story for The Rugged Elegance Inspiration Network when it comes in.

Until then, get ready for the opening of Apple's first retail store in the city of San Francisco. The store will open in Union Square at One Stockton Street on Saturday, February 28 at 10:00 a.m. PST. The store will be one of Apple's five flagship stores worldwide, joining flagship stores in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Tokyo.

Happy Birthday, Ulan!

-Tim

I asked one of my clients to give me a ride to the store opening Thursday night. Ruty, owner of Cotton Kidz and a recent Mac switcher, has three sons who joined us for the ride.

I tried to explain why I wanted to be first in line. I guess I did a good job because one of them, Lovel, decided to spend the time with me. Lovel is getting a great education on following his life's dreams - no matter how strange they may appear to the outside world.

We started the night chatting with the construction workers and the security crew. We then watched a few movies until my battery on my laptop ran out around 1 am. In just 4 short hours I had already started to see a change in Lovel's demeanor. While he started out shy and a little scared, by the time he entered dreamland he was relaxed and having a blast.

There is a father and son team that has made a habit of showing up for Apple store openings. They run a web site, ifoapplestore.com, that I like to read on occasion. One of their articles was on how they flew to Japan and stood out in the rain for three days for the first international Apple store. They were the crew I wanted to beat by showing up in dubious weather 36 hours before the San Francisco store opening. Well... they showed up at 6am and were a little surprised and saddened to see us huddled in the doorway.

By noon, more than a few dozen people had chatted with us and made commitments to come back later in the day to spend the night. My wife and son came by shortly after noon to wish me an early happy birthday. They brought cake and balloons and a little food. Lovel's parents came by to check on him and see what all the hub-bub was about.

Lovel recently had his Bar Mitzvah and he asked if he could spend part of his cash on the $250 "Mystery Bag" worth $600 - $1,000. I guess they find this whole experience to be educational - they granted his wish.

By 6pm over 50 folks were camped out. Friends and family of Apple employees were milling about inside the store and the entire tenor of the line became much more up-beat and anticipatory. Tourists from around the world had arrived. It is always enjoyable to hear stories about how they first fell in love with Macs and what they are using their computers for now.

Ulan and Friends

So I am sitting here in my friend Steve's convertible at 4am listening to his latest GarageBand creations. For those who do not know, GarageBand is Apple's latest application and part of their iLife suite. Steve knows a little guitar and has quite an eclectic taste in music and his GarageBand songs reflect this. None of the productions took more than 4 hours to compose yet they sound professional. True California living! =)

People started dropping off to sleep at around 11pm. The pace of new line-sitters started to pick up. Now, at 4am, there are well over 300 people in a line that stretches more than two blocks. In Japan, almost 5,000 people formed a line over 10 blocks long! Will SF get close to this? We shall see...

Lots of people want to know why people choose to stand in line for an Apple store opening? While it is not so hard for Mac-lovers to understand, I realize that 90+% of the world might find this strange. Short version: Macs can become more than a tool to get work done. Those of us, who think of our Macs as more than tools to get the job done, understand that there is a bit of art that goes into everything Apple does. We stand in line because, in the simplest terms, we appreciate the art Apple creates.

I find that I enjoy my time working in OS X and because it does not crash, I try out lots of applications just to test them out. Most Macintosh users I know explore in similar ways. Spending time at an Apple store opening allows us to sit and chat about what applications work and why. It is like a mini-conference of Mac-users. It certainly helps that the folks in line are so very nice.

While Apple is selling 200 "Mystery Bags" and giving out 2,500 t-shirts, one Mac enthusiast summed up the real reason most of us are here: Apple makes our lives better. Sitting in line is our way of showing you that we care.

We want to welcome Apple to the neighborhood and wish them the best in their endeavor.

We are here to say "Thank you Apple."

At 4 am there were under 200 and I was one of them.