Ben Callahan of Fairborn carried his daughter Tessa, 4, on his shoulders through the doors and into the packed store featuring some 125 Apple devices booted up and ready for customers to try, including the full line of iPads, iPhones, Mac computers and displays.
“I’m excited. We’ve been driving down to Cincinnati to get to an Apple Store,” Callahan said. “It’s very convenient to have it here and a good draw for The Greene, too.”
Alex Del Cid, 15, of Troy was first in line, arriving around 11 p.m. Friday. He took turns with his mother napping in the car and holding down their spot throughout the night’s drizzle. Del Cid was also first to belly up to the store’s large Genius Bar to get his disabled and pass-code scrambled iPhone restored by an Apple specialist. A half hour later, his phone was fixed.
“Now we get to have fun re-uploading all those fun games and applications that he had before,” said his mother, Kelly Del Cid. “They took very good care of us. They had very good training.”
Brett Kopp of Springboro, who has owned only Macs for 15 years, came for the entertainment.
“I want to play with their new toys,” said Kopp, a pharmicist who uses PCs at work.
Apple famously sets retail prices evenly, whether in its own stores or other online or in-store re-sellers, so the only deal most got was a free T-shirt going to the first 1,000 customers.
Callie Lehner, a current Sinclair Community College student, was able to take advantage of an Apple back-to-school offer. Lehner, of Englewood, was in line to purchase a new MacBook Pro to use when she transfers to Liberty University this fall. A school visit there convinced her the computer was the one to buy.
“I saw a lot of people had Macs so I thought maybe I should just invest in getting a Mac because they’re really reliable,” Lehner said.
Until Sept. 9, students can get a $100 Apple Store gift card with the purchase of a Mac for college, or a $50 gift card with the purchase of an an iPad or iPhone.
The store’s opening has not been as grand for two area Apple-authorized re-sellers that already closed or will soon shutter operations.
MacTown vacated one store at The Greene in March after owners learned of Apple’s plans. At the end of May, the company closed its last remaining store in Miami Twp., near the Dayton Mall.
MacDepot, on Dorothy Lane in Kettering just down the road from the new Apple Store, will close at the end of the month, according to co-founder Greg Herting. Herting said it became difficult to compete with Apple’s online sales and charged the company alienated re-sellers by withholding products at key times of the year, including holidays and back-to-school seasons, in order to sell products directly to consumers through its corporate-owned stores and website.
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