Crowd causes Apple store to cancel sale

Associated Press

BEIJING

Raw eggs splattered and streaked the gleaming windows of Beijing’s Apple store Friday, hurled by angry and frustrated shoppers when the launch of the iPhone 4S was canceled due to fears over the size of the crowd.

The incident highlighted the role of Chinese middlemen who buy up wildly popular iPhones or smuggle them from abroad for resale at a big markup.

Hundreds of customers — including migrant workers hired by scalpers in teams of 20 to 30 — waited overnight in freezing temperatures outside the Apple store in a mall in Beijing’s east side Sanlitun district.

When the store failed to open as scheduled at 7 a.m., the crowd erupted in anger. Some pelted the store with eggs and shouted at employees through the windows.

A person with a megaphone announced the sale was canceled. Police ordered the crowd to leave and sealed off the area with yellow tape.

There was shouting as some of the people were pushed away from the entrance.

Employees posted a sign saying the iPhone 4S was out of stock.

“We were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being,” said Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu.

The iPhone 4S quickly sold out at other Apple stores in China, Wu said.