A loyal fan waited about 20 hours to be the first person to enter Taiwan’s second official Apple store, which had its grand opening in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) at 10am yesterday.
“I came here between 2pm and 3pm yesterday [Friday], because I wanted to become the first visitor to the new Apple store,” 33-year-old Lu Shao-hua (呂紹華) excitedly told reporters.
In July 2017, when Apple opened its first official store inside the nearby Taipei 101 Mall, the first visitor was a 28-year-old foreigner who lined up for 68 hours.
Photo: CNA
“This time, I, a Taiwanese, was the first visitor to the new Apple store, instead of a foreigner,” Lu said.
The new Apple store — Apple Xinyi A13 — is at an independent location at the corner of Songshou and Songren roads. Before its grand opening yesterday morning, about 1,200 people had lined up to visit the store.
The new store features the same stone, wood and metal construction materials used in the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California.
The new store’s exterior resembles Apple’s flagship outlet in Chicago — Apple Michigan Avenue — an airy glass box with a curved-edge roof modeled after a MacBook.
The first group of visitors received T-shirts commemorating the occasion, Apple said, but did not disclose how many T-shirts were handed out.
Lu said that he bought his first Apple product in 2006, an iPod Shuffle, and has since become a fan of the tech giant’s products, of which he has bought at least 20.
Many of the other people lining up to enter the new store have been Apple fans for two or three decades, said Lu, one of the few Apple Certified Trainers in Taiwan.
As Apple now has an independent store that is not restricted by a shopping mall’s business hours, the company plans to have a flexible schedule to launch a comprehensive series of activities for customers, he said.
After becoming the first visitor to the new store, Lu said that he just wanted to go home to get some rest, adding that he plans to participate in Apple’s photography courses.
After Apple on May 24 released information about its second store in Taipei, some netizens expressed the hope that the firm would open its next official store outside of the capital.
Apple sells most of its products in Taiwan through its own online channel and authorized resellers such as Studio A, iStore and Data Express, in addition to its official stores.
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