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Apple’s first foldable iPhone sparked a launch-day circus in New York on Friday, with fans lining up for hours — and in some cases overnight — before stores opened, only to find some flagship locations were already out of walk-in stock by mid-morning.
At Apple’s glass-cube Fifth Avenue store, a video posted online showed a “massive queue” around 4:15 a.m. as customers waited for the new iPhone Duo.
By 10 a.m., a Reddit user posted that the store had “ran out of stock for walk-ins,” adding that the remaining line was made up of customers with confirmed pickup orders.
The frenzy began well before dawn.
One launch-day customer, Alex Wong, told The US Sun he got in line at 2 p.m. Thursday — a full 18 hours before the Fifth Avenue store’s 8 a.m. opening — and was still only around 25th in line.
Elsewhere in the city, crowds and inventory varied sharply from store to store, underscoring just how uneven Apple’s launch-day supply appeared to be.
At the World Trade Center store, one Reddit user wrote that employees came out at 6 a.m. to start processing orders and that there were “probably 200 people in line.”
The same poster complained: “Many scalpers. Many ordering 2, don’t even know what they’re ordering.”
Another poster at the same location estimated the crowd at “maybe 130 people” and said store staff had warned shoppers there were “very few units” available.
At Apple’s Upper East Side location, a Reddit user summed up the mood more bluntly: “Apple UES NYC — sold out for walk-ins 😓.”
Downtown Brooklyn offered a slightly different picture. One earlier post estimated about 50 people were outside, while another shopper later reported: “WAITED IN LINE, THEY JUST GOT STOCK. ONLY BLUE AS OF 9:18 AM.”
The run on the Duo comes after Apple warned that walk-in quantities at US stores would be limited on launch day.
The social media chatter suggests the scarcity only added to the hype.
In Chicago, one buyer said he arrived 45 minutes before opening and still managed to reserve a 512GB “Night Sky” model.
In Dallas, another said showing up 30 minutes before doors opened was enough to land the configuration he wanted.
An Apple user in Dallas said he waited 11 hours outside Apple’s University Park store to score a white 512GB iPhone Duo.
But in Ardmore, Penn., just outside of Philadelphia, one shopper said he arrived at 5:45 a.m. and the store was “Sold out 7:30ish.”
The same shopper reported that Apple’s King of Prussia, Penn., location sold out shortly after 8 a.m., while nearby Willow Grove Park had also run out by the time he arrived around 9 a.m.
JUST IN – Video shows a massive queue outside Apple Fifth Avenue in New York around 4:15 AM as customers line up for the iPhone Duo. pic.twitter.com/jkLUJyz8mM
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 23, 2026
He complained about entire families purchasing two phones apiece, including parents who brought babies in strollers and carriers into the chilly morning air.
“[S]calpers suck,” he fumed, adding that he planned to console himself with ice cream while waiting until December for his phone.
At Delaware’s Christiana Mall, another shopper estimated that 200 to 300 people were lined up for the new gadget.
In Orlando, Apple’s store at the Mall at Millenia stopped accepting walk-in orders by about 8:15 a.m., according to a Reddit user who reported that security guards had been stationed throughout the queue and at the cutoff point.
— Wade (@TechDaily) October 23, 2026This was the line-before-the-line. 4:15am in Las Vegas (Town Square) with 30-40 people.
Now, probably 150+ and I can no longer see the end of the line. pic.twitter.com/r5oeLLo3iw
In Colorado, some would-be customers weren’t even allowed to camp out.
One Reddit user said mall security kicked early shoppers out of Denver’s Cherry Creek location and barred them from lining up until 7 a.m. The customer subsequently headed to another Apple store in Colorado Springs.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a social media user reported that the crowd outside Apple’s Town Square store swelled from an estimated 30 to 40 people at 4:15 a.m. to more than 150 later in the morning.
In Boise, Idaho, a shopper who arrived at 4:45 a.m. said he was 19th in line and managed to purchase a Duo.
The store subsequently sold out, with an estimated 50 to 60 early customers getting phones while later arrivals were turned away.
And in Los Angeles, the launch produced dramatically different outcomes depending on the store.
One shopper at Manhattan Village in Manhattan Beach reported that roughly 50 people lined up and everyone managed to get a phone.
But another Reddit user reported that Apple’s Century City location had already sold out.