Posts Tagged ‘crabtree valley mall’

Posted on August 21, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Gap uses QR codes for marketing but no sign of Foursquare in stores

Update

Looking for a fast QR Code Reader / Scanner? Try my new iPhone app: CLICK HERE

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Today while visiting Crabtree Valley Mall I walked into the Gap store to see if they had any offline location based marketing signs due to all of their recent promotions with Foursquare and groupon. I know the groupon promotion was a one day special but I thought the Foursquare promotion was still going on.

I decided to ask one of the Gap employees about the Foursquare promotion and they said they think it was a certain percentage off after checking into a least three Gap locations. Little did they know that was a test question. Cool and thank you I said the the employee and walked away. I’m glad they were aware of the Foursquare promotion, where often times you ask employees about national location or social marketing efforts and they have no clue.

I did see a nice QR code by the cash register before leaving that said “Do you believe in magic?”, “scan for customer reviews and styling ideas….”. Me being the geek I am, scanned the QR code and it sent me to the page below.

Also the QR code sign mention if
I didn’t have a QR reader I could download the Scanlife qr / barcode app.

It’s interesting to see brands finally start to use QR codes in stores for marketing but I’m also wondering when we’ll see brands start placing logos/signs saying check-in here outside of window clings.

Regardless I give Gap 2 thumbs up for all of their recent success and trying new social/local/group/coupon marketing efforts.

Have you seen QR codes used in other stores recently? If so how?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Glenwood Ave,Raleigh,United States

Posted on June 24, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

iPhone 4 Launch Day at Crabtree Valley Mall (Raleigh)

Guest post by: carleemallard

Although the mall apparently had been open all night for people to start lining up at the Apple store’s front doors, I arrived at Crabtree bright and early at 5:00am, thinking that the mall wouldn’t open until 5:30am. To my surprise, we found two separate lines forming, one for those with iPhones reserved and another for those without a reservation. There were only about 50 people in the reservation line by the time we arrived at 5am, but unfortunately we found ourselves behind at least 150 others without reservations.

As early as it was, people were generally in good spirits and playing nice. Some were still sleeping from the overnight camp while others took the time to catch up on their laptops or iPads even though the reception and WiFi service was pretty slow. One person even brought his guitar and played it in the beach chair he brought. Everyone slowly started making friends with their neighbors in line knowing that they may be in it for the long haul.

Around 6:15am a few Apple employees brought out 10 dozen or so Dunkin Donuts to feed the early morning crowd. A good sign of things to come!

Anticipation grew as 7:00am neared. A few minutes before 7am, employees took down the black curtain that prevented us from getting a sneak peak into the preparation for all the madness that was about to ensue and the crowd cheered for the first time.

Immediately after the curtain fell (at 7:00am on the dot), 20 or so Apple employees came rushing out of the service door, running, screaming, and high-fiving everyone in line. We were all surprised, but it seemed like a great way to get the started!

Minutes later the doors finally opened at Apple and they started letting in about 10 people from the reservation line for every 1 person in the regular line. Needless to say, the reservation line moved pretty quickly for the first few hours while us in the regular line sat in the same place (only moving perhaps a foot an hour) for those first few hours.

But around 11am we at the middle/back of the non-reservation line started heering loud mysterious cheers from the front of our line. Ended up they were just cheering every time someone from our line got to enter the Apple store, approximately every 10-15 minutes. It was pretty motivating, to say the least. After being there for 6+ hours I think Apple realized they needed to keep us customers still in line motivated as well. They started going down the line handing out packs of pretzels and Ritz crackers, bottles of water, and then all sorts of candy just as if it were Halloween.

Not only that, but just around lunch time, Subway staff came around passing out mini ham & turkey subs! Lunch? Really? Amazing. Then more candy. Then more water. Followed by Lindt chocolate passing out those little chocolates to anyone who wanted some. In the late afternoon Bare Essentials even passed out free makeup samples to all the girls. This line wasn’t actually half bad, huh?

The line was moving about 5 minutes per person in line. I calculated I wouldn’t get into the store until 4:00pm at the earliest, but I stayed optimistic that perhaps it would start moving more quickly. By 3:00 I could start feeling the finish line as there were only 40-50 people ahead of me to go. We stayed energized by our new friends that we had just gotten to know over the past 10 hours. It was as if we’d known these people for months. We were never bored, but still eager to get through the line and back to our lives.

But then something amazing happened. A young man approached us in line asking how long we’d been waiting here in line (this was typical as all the regular mall-goers had been asking all day what we were

waiting in line for). When we told him since 5am, he told us that he worked over at Best Buy mobile and had a reservation for one of the 16GB iPhones cancel and he was offering it to me. Pure luck? An act of God? Either way, I left my place in line and followed “God” to his Best Buy mobile store and promptly paid for, activated, accessorized, and left the store with my new iPhone 4 in hand.

Upon leaving the mall I walked past my new friends who were still waiting in line and showed off my new gear.

They probably waited in line for another hour. Sorry Apple, you treated me really really well for those 11 hours, but in the end Best Buy mobile man saved the day!

Posted on June 24, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Apple iPhone 4 @ Crabtree Valley Mall. Hello, iPhone. Good-bye, day.

Guest post by: @PennyMoxie

I told the guy who would be buying  my old phone that I would call him when I was out of the Apple store.  ”What time do you think that will be”, he asked.  I wanted to be CONSERVATIVE, so I replied, “about 9:00am.  I’m getting there at 6:45, so i can’t imagine it will take that long.”  I’m a first-class fool.

6:30am   I put my 5-year-old in the car and told her she was going with me to “pick-up my new iPhone” at the mall.  I figured she would get fidgety in the store, but we wouldn’t be there that long.  At one point, while driving to Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, NC, my daughter asked, “Mommy, what is wrong?”  I told her I was anxious and had a lot to do today.  ”I just want to get in, get out, and get you to the pool with your aunt,” I said.  A few minutes later, we pulled into the mall parking lot and I looked at all the cars.  I think I said out loud, “Elin, these cars must be mall employees and the people who walk the mall when it’s too hot outside.  Surely, they can’t all be here for the new iPhone.”  Again, first-class fool.

We park and head in.  I can’t begin to articulate how I felt the first time I got a look at the crowd.  The line.  The masses.  I’ve been at Crabtree Valley Mall on Black Friday and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people on one floor.  I’ve been to Disney World and I’ve never seen a line that long.  I took and deep breath, tried to remain cool, and walked around the people with sleeping bags and lawn chairs.  I kept walking.  I walked some more, turned 4 corners, went down a hallway and into the food court.  I saw the end of the line and like a first-class fool, I decided to stand in it.

But then things really started looking up.  I was NOT a fool.  I had reserved my iPhone and I was in the correct line.  Clearly, there were only 200 people in this line.  Whew!  My goal of 9:00am was totally do-able.  Smile on face, cocky swagger kicking in.

8:40 am   After a visit from my husband with Starbucks in one hand and muffin the other, I was feeling pretty refreshed.  My daughter was chill and I spotted two other moms who had brought their kids.  I wasn’t the worst mom on the planet…just 3rd or 4th.  It was going a little slower than I thought, but I knew there were only 150 people in front of me MAX and the line seemed to be moving.

9:30am  I turned the corner and saw the store!  I was in!  Maybe 75 people in front of me.  I was golden.

9:31am  A lovely mall security officer came over and said, “we are going to move this line.  We need to get the food court cleared for lunch.”  There were 400 people behind me at this point, so this made sense.  We were herded like techy-nerd cattle and put into a line down the hallway.  This is when my day was officially over.  I realized the line I was in, which had put me close to the entrance of the store, actually wrapped around the perimeter of the mall.  There were 700 people IN FRONT of me.  Good-bye, day.

10:00am  My 5-year-old was a little antsy, so I called Aunt Bonnie to give her some relief. ” PLEASE come and pick her up and take her to the pool!”

10:30am  Aunt Bonnie arrives and my daughter informs me she would like to stay.  She wants to see what’s behind those glass doors.  No way is she missing out.  This is actually the most compelling part of the day.  The excitement in the mall was energizing.  These 2000 people were all pumped.  We were surrounded by strangers but we all had something in common.  The converstation for the last 3 hours was high def camera, retina screens, mult-tasking and apps.  It was a mall full of people, some who had been since 10pm the night before, some who were just hanging with friends.  But we were wired from the thrill of the hunt because we were all early-adapters.  My daughter had picked up on this energy, and she wasn’t leaving.

11:00am  Did I mention energy?  I introduced my daughter to suicide drills, which she executed beautifully in front of Bath and Body Works.

11:30am  Food!  Apple paid for a truck load of subs.

12:30pm  My iPhone 3GS is dead.  This is the worse possible thing that could have happened.  No more tweeting.  No more facebook.  This day was going downhill fast.

12:30pm – 1:59pm  This was not pretty.  It was still exciting and the energy was great, but I was starting to smell and my neighbors were realizing I skipped my usual hygiene routine this morning (remember, I was going to be home by 9…I would bathe then).  We were all hungry and thirsty.  We weren’t talking as much.  The guys at the Brookstone store were laughing at us.  Actually, everyone  not involved in this insanity were laughing.  They walked by the nerds behind the rope lines and pointed.  ”No way” and “idiots” was overheard many times.  I was starting to agree.

2:00pm  I’m the next in line to enter the store.  I’m feeling good.  The lighted apple icon above me was almost a symbol of success.  The finish line.  At this point, it’s not about the phone, it’s about finishing this marathon.

2:05pm  I’m in the store.  I can’t believe it.  My sister (Aunt Bonnie) is documenting on her iPhone.  The employees were calm, the store was comfortable, the police officers out front didn’t arrest my sister for photographing an Apple store.  But most importantly, I had my new iPhone.  I did not have a shower, and that was the next thing on my list.  I know my line mates were thinking the same thing (about me, not them).

2:45pm  Home.  Synced.  My daughter starving.  My voicemail going nuts.  I don’t care.  I stood in line for 7 hours to get a phone I could have ordered and had shipped to my house by mid-July.  But I’m a first-class fool.  A first-class fool with a sweet iPhone.

Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

iPhone 3G S Apple Store launch coverage from Raleigh, NC – Year 3

I’m sure by now you know what today is, iPhone 3G S launch day and for the third year in a row I was able to catch up with an old friend and take some pictures/videos of the Apple Store opening plus the hundreds standing in line for the iPhone. When I arrived, I saw Ashton, who for three years in a row now has been first in line to buy the iPhone at the Apple Store in Crabtree Valley Mall. I first met Ashton in 2007 when he purchased the 1st generation iPhone and I was able to take this picture of him, which has been viewed over 5,000 times on flickr and I was recently told it may the first picture of a consumer with the first generation iPhone on the web.

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2007

Fast forward three years later, Ashton and I make our yearly routine of meeting at the Apple Store on iPhone launch day and as normal he’s first in line. I must say this year’s iPhone activation seems to have went a lot smother than last years. Ashton walked in the Apple store, told the employee he wanted a white iPhone and it was purchased and activated in about 15 minutes versus the 8 plus hours he spent in the store last year. Then in about another 15 minutes Ashton had his iPhone 3G S synced with his contacts, music and photos loaded. Great job this year by the Raleigh Apple Store team. Also it was interesting to see others who were buying the iPhone 3G S talk about what color they were buying. Most seem to have purchased the white iPhone 3G S 16 GB version, especially if they had purchased a black iPhone last year.

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2008

Asthon first in line at the Appe Store 2009

For those of you who are waiting to purchase an iPhone 3G S, I recommend coming in later today to avoid the line and I’m almost sure they won’t run out of iPhones. If you reserved your iPhone you have until today to come pick it up. Below are some more videos and photos from the iPhone 3G S launch at the Raleigh Apple Store in Crabtree Valley Mall.

Apple Store opening for iPhone 3Gs

Test video uploaded from iPhone 3G S to youtube.

The line waiting to enter Apple Store for iPhone 3G S

The Apple Store iPhone 3G S activation station area:

For a hands on review of the iPhone 3G S, see today’s episode of Talk Social News recorded from the Apple Store today here -> Hands on iPhone 3G S review & more AT&T upgrade fail news – episode 060

Did you stand in line for the iPhone 3G S or are you going to wait?

Is this your first iPhone if you purchased an iPhone 3G S today?

Update:
I went to meet some friends in line a few hours later at the Apple Store. The line is still long and it’s a slow process to get everyone into the store because Apple won’t let you leave without the phone being activated.

@ginnyskal & @mammalpants in waiting line

@Kitch with his new iPhone 3G S