After hours in line, Samantha Sutton had finally made it. But when she walked through the doors of the AT&T store on Arden Way this morning, she came with a warning.
"Three hours later, you'd better have a phone," she said to no one in particular after waiting for, you guessed it, three hours in line outside the store. "You don't want a riot in here."
Sutton, who lives in Arden-Arcade, was kidding, but the crowds that began gathering as early as Thursday night in front of the Arden Way store for Apple's new iPhone 3G were no joke. Lines of as many as 200 at a time snaked along the sidewalk through the morning for the sleek new version of Apple's hit phone that launched today.
"It's been very busy - busier than last year. The turnout's been phenomenal," said Karen Stoffel, AT&T's vice president of sales from a crowded sales floor. "People are asking, 'Do you still have some?' We expect this throughout the weekend."
But people in line such as Michele Kelley of Shingle Springs weren't thinking about the weekend. They wanted their new phone now. Kelley had started her quest at 6 a.m. at the Apple store inside Arden Fair mall.
She'd waited three hours in line there only to be told that the outlet didn't accept iPhone business accounts. Down the parking lot she went to AT&T and to another line.
Next to her, Olga Woods of Sacramento waited, leaning on a pair of crutches. She was looking forward to getting her hands on the new do-everything phone, loaded with a Web browser, GPS and e-mail, among other features.
"It's like having my computer literally at my hands at all times: e-mail, sending pictures, talking," she said. "It's made my landline obsolete."
But her excitement was short-lived.
Minutes later, just before 11 a.m., a sales staffer told the crowd of about 50 what they didn't want to hear.
The store sold out of iPhones. Customers were told they could order online or wait for a later shipment.
"People have been standing in line for hours," Woods said, visibly disappointed. "If it was press they were looking for, that's what they got."
Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.
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