Verizon opens early for iPhone 4

Jennifer Higgins, a Verizon Wireless retail sales representative, was on a caffeine high at 6:15 a.m., as the open can of Dr Pepper in front of her indicated.

“I’ve had coffee and Dr Pepper and some Monster and several donuts now,” Higgins said. “I’m expecting a full-blown crash at about 10 a.m.”

Higgins worked Thursday morning as customers braved frigid temperatures to wait in line for the much-anticipated iPhone 4 at the Bloomington College Mall store.

Higgins, along with other Bloomington employees, went through crowd training, store meetings and further company training from Verizon in the weeks leading up to the release of the new iPhone.

The Bloomington store had the additional task of preparing for bitter cold temperatures forecasted for Thursday morning.

“We’ve prepped for the cold,” said Jeremy Stierwalt, Bloomington Verizon store manager. “We’ve got little hats and gloves for people who will be
working outside.”

Outside in single-digit temperatures at 6:30 a.m., 15 people waited in a roped-off line.

Junior Jake Woodring was seventh in line. He said he went to bed “pretty early” around midnight and woke up at 4 a.m. to wait in line outside the store.

“I’ve been a Verizon customer, and I wanted to get a smart phone for a while,”
Woodring said.

Woodring tried to preorder his iPhone 4 online, but Verizon gave him an estimated shipping date of Feb. 18.

“I canceled last night and basically all yesterday I was planning it out,” Woodring said of his cold morning stakeout.

Stierwalt said he couldn’t specify how many iPhone 4s the store had.

But it’s clear he and his employees were expecting a big sales day. Stierwalt said they have been setting up iPhone 4 displays and stocking accessories like covers, chargers and docks for more than a week.

“Last Friday we had a trial run to make sure we’re ready for traffic flows,” Stierwalt said.

In the days leading up to the release, Stierwalt said Verizon customers have been expressing more and more interest in the iPhone 4. Verizon customers who preordered iPhone 4s have been coming in since Feb. 3 to activate their phones and
buy accessories.

“We’ve had a lot of interest,” Stierwalt said.

He said he received phone calls along the lines of “When do you open?”, “How many do you have?” and “If I come tomorrow at noon, can I get one?”

Higgins predicted the iPhone 4 launch to be her biggest day in her eight-and-a-half year career at Verizon.

“It will probably be the craziest day I’ve been here,” Higgins said. “I think we will all work all day long with little break in the action.”

Higgins said she understood the iPhone 4 hype.

“This is clearly a game-changing phone for the industry,” Higgins said. “We’ve had people lined up outside before, but the anticipation on this one seems to be huge.”