The iPhone 5 Line Was Filled With Occupiers, Urban Campers, and Pro-Line Waiters

I’m standing outside the Apple’s 5th Avenue Flagship store with Caitlin, Motherboard’s awesome new intern. I’m overcome by a contact high I’ve picked up from the sleep-deprived iPhone fanatics. Layers of sweat and yesterday’s rain coat a couple dozen overnighters, while the barking of various brands’ street teams trying to piggyback the launch event and promo-people spiral their bottles of dangerously caffeinated ice coffee at us. And, still, none of this typical NYC sidewalk chaos is enough to overpower the yelling of an indignant #OccupyApple movement, of which half of the line consists of.

Yesterday, all the silly awkwardness of the iPhone 5 waiting line added up to a pretty gnarly feeling. Some of the fanatics were drenched in sleep-eye crust while others munched on $5 tuna foot-longs. Some just peacefully sit and read, ignoring the swarm of international media operations. Some of them even planned on buying the new phone. Here is a collection of quick interviews we did with a few of the iPhone 5 line’s more colorful characters.

Do you have a network of other people doing this at the other stores?

We just kinda did this on a whim last night, and it’s working out fairly well, we’re doing some pretty good outreach. It’s trying to raise awareness of what the real situation is. You know, over in Asia, apple has multiple factories, along with other companies. We’re mainly protesting Apple right now because of the release of the iPhone 5. The factory conditions are terrible.

Right here is a 100 RMB note, and in American this is 15 dollars. These people make about 2 RMB an hour. It’s not even a hundredth of a cent. You know, it’s not even a hundredth of a cent in our regular economy. And it’s perfectly fine to anyone that wants to ignore the situation. These people are living in bunk rooms, four stacked on top of each other. Bunk beds. And they’re working 20 hour days, sharing one bathroom between 200 people. Yo, it’s all perfectly well and fine as long as you keep buying something. There’s suicide nets outside of it. Outside of these factories. At least about eight people a week are jumping off, ya know, trying to commit suicide. And it’s wrong, this is a multi-billion dollar company that can pay for worker’s conditions to be at least tolerable.

Whoa, you’re first in line. Who are you?

Sage.

You’ve been here since when?

Sometime last Thursday.

How’s it been?

Challenging, but I’ve built many urban camps. I live outside, that’s my choice. To me, all you normal people that live indoors look like addicts.

How many years have you guys been doing this together?

I’ve done this for three years already, but he’s been doing it longer.

What’s your name?

Greg Packer

How long have you been doing this?

Since ’07. I did the first one and the 2.

Are you getting 64 gigs?

I haven’t decided yet. Probably the smaller one.

Just one for you?

One for me, one for my buddy.

How long have you been here?

Since Tuesday.

Why this store instead of the 14th street or the Upper West Side store?

This is the flagship store, we’ve come here before for launch events; it’s part of the experience.

(Greg, who has an extensive fameball Wiki profile, would be the first to leave the store with an iPhone 5)

How long have you been out here?

48 hours.

Just sitting calmly, peacefully, waiting.

iPhone 5.

Black or white?

White.

How many gigs?

I think the 64 gigs is pretty nifty.

Where are you from?

London, but I live in New York.

Any features you’re looking forward to the most?

High speed internet and texting.

How do you feel about the #OccupyApple guys over there?

The other line? They’re anti, for some reason they’re anti. This line is pro-Apple.

Did you come alone?

Yes, I’m here by myself.

Is this your first time waiting in line at Apple?

This is my very first time I’ve waited in line. I’ve never seen the Apple phone before, so when I found out there is an Apple phone with internet and everything else, I thought it was very exciting. So I decided to buy one, so now I’m waiting in line. Thanks, I will now get back to my space in line, I’m number 13.

As the police prepare some barricades near the Apple store’s Louvre-esque glass cube (the line must shift onto the property and off of the sidewalk), Caitlin and I are splitting a bottled coffee. It has 4x the amount of caffeine than a single can of coke does. ‘I feel a little haywire,’ I tell her, ‘the energy here is ridiculous.’ On our way back to Brooklyn we accost a gentleman standing in last place:

So, you’re last?

Yes.

And when did you get here?

Right now.

Seems like it doesn’t matter if you’re here early anyways.

Yea.

Did you just get off of work or something?

Yea, I just left early. This is the same thing I did last year.

What if it rains?

That will suck, but I don’t mind staying out here for one night. It’s worth it.