A tipster sends us this tale of a trip to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store last night.
Went to the Fifth Ave store near midnight today, and saw that Apple was setting up a separate line just to handle the volume of iPad returns from Chinese resellers. The manager kept the separate line to ensure that regular customer's experience wasn't affected. Some people were returning up to 30.
A number of organizations have written about the reseller phenomenon, including the New York Times:
They show up in the early-morning hours: Chinese men and women, waiting silently and somewhat nervously outside of Apple stores in New York. On some days the lines they form can be a block long.
These are not typical Apple fans. Instead they are participants in a complex and curious trade driven by China’s demand for Apple’s fashionable gadgets — products that are made in China in the first place and exported, only to make the long trip back.
The resellers try to buy as many iPads as they can to resell them at a high margin, bit it seems that Apple has had success in fulfilling demand this time -- even selling more than enough iPads to the resellers. Apple Stores have a 14-day return policy, and it applies to all iPad purchasers.
Top Rated Comments
something to still accept them but make it a pain to do.
Track based on Driver's License or ID like Best Buy and pharmacies who can only sell X amount of allergy stuff.
Not long after, I invented Velcro and those obnoxious plastic blister packages. Within two millennia of my eleventy-first birthday, Liv Tyler pledged her undieing love to me. Orlando Bloom is still pissed about that.
P.S. do you seriously not recognize the irony in my "narcissism" comment and your response? Love ya though... I'm a life long developer myself. I would recommend toning down my boastful bravado. It's going to do you NO favors when you are out in the adult workforce that you are currently bitter to not be a part of.*
Chocolate covered advice #1: Be proud of your accomplishments, but try to keep your superiority complex in check.*Unless you are John Carmack or Tim Sweeny's understudy, your skill set is neither unique nor irreplaceable(we developers are EVERYWHERE)... you'll learn that soon enough should your behavior warrant the lesson. Nor does your experience give you ANY right to claim intellectual superiority over people you don't know. That sort of behavior? It's called narcissism.
But enough of this silly bickering. Keep at it man! Last thing in the world I would ever do is discourage someone from learning to code and stretch their mental muscle. Just save the chest thumping till you are a bit older, have learned a thing or two, and have had a few beers like me ;)
Dude, you sound just like a normal teenager.