Updated: Queue Mayhem At London's Covent Garden Apple Store
by Joe White
September 25, 2010
Update
It seems this article has caused a bit of upset with our readers, and I'd like to address this now.
Several readers have labelled certain aspects of this article as being "racist." This is quite simply untrue. My reference to the two gentlemen in the image below was sarcastic. Clearly, it was poorly communicated on my part. However, I cannot help but feel very hurt that our readers have so quickly jumped on the bandwagon, and have accused me of being racist - because the accusation is quite simply ill-founded.
I am not racist. I do not make judgements based on race.
Brokers can be a member of any ethnic group: the two men below happen to not be white. I was wrong to even comically hint that these two gentlemen might have been brokers. I attempted to highlight the impossibility of recognizing brokers through a sarcastic comment, and in doing so, clearly upset a great many people.
For this I would like to sincerely apologize for the comments I made. I have not removed them from the article, as I hope my response will better illuminate this piece of writing for what it is, and what it is not.
And, it is most certainly not a "racist rant."
Again, please accept my apologies. I hope this has not tainted your lasting opinion of AppAdvice. We all make mistakes, and I'm sorry for the one I made.
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London's Covent Garden Apple store has been open for a couple of months now. But, that doesn't mean the queues have died down.
As you can see from the above screenshot, people are still flocking to the city center's beautiful store. And, why wouldn't they? It spans four floors, and features a glass ceiling, along with all the glorious Apple products housed inside.
According to British newspaper, the Daily Mail, many of the visitors aren't looking to buy anything, they're content just looking around. However, those who are looking to purchase Apple's latest handset (iPhone 4) aren't always going to keep the phone for themselves. The Daily Mail said:
The brokers are hoovering up supplies of the new phones which they can sell for vastly inflated profits to customers in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia where the phone is not yet on sale. The brokers are targeting the company’s stores in Britain because the UK is one of only a handful of countries which sells contract-free versions of the new video phone.Sadly, this means customers who are genuinely interested in purchasing the handset aren't having much luck. International competition means many UK Apple fans aren't leaving with the iPhone 4. According to the article, this isn't just happening in London: "It’s happening all over Britain. Wherever there’s an Apple store there are brokers – in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Nottingham." Pretty shocking, right? As the article notes, it's a shame Apple is allowing brokers to get away with this. Then again, how could they put a stop to it. The guys in the photo below look rather on the "dodgy" side, but you can't turn a customer away based on personal opinion alone.
