Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac:

In May 2001, Mac users had a reason to celebrate. The iMac was a hit, Mac OS X had just been released, and soon there would be a better way to get hands-on with the latest products. The excitement of Apple was back. Lining up to be the first inside an Apple Store was as much about celebrating a reinvigorated Apple as it was about the store itself.

But then a funny thing happened. The lines didn’t slow by store ten. Or one hundred. They grew, often stretching around the block or snaking through mall corridors. New products brought opening day lines back to stores that opened long ago. New versions of Mac OS X became World Premiere events. iPhone turned the dial to eleven.

Great series of articles (three of the four are out now) from Apple Store aficionado Michael Steeber, full of stories covering the twenty year history of the Apple Store.

This resonates strongly for me. I was at the opening of the very first Apple Store (not including the one on Apple campus) and it was wild. Amazingly, two of the folks who worked on that opening day still work there.