Again, this is a case of line waiters causing the queue in front of others to grow.
The main reason I bring these up is that this needs to be nipped in the bud before some future situation leads to actual tragic results (witness some of the Black Friday problems that sme retailers have faced).
I understand the psychological aspect of waiting in line for a release. There’s the whole social aspect of actually being there. But it also leads to situations like this when there is no orderly method to also insure that it’s fair. Apple doesn’t begin breaking out the line (to walk-in buyers versus pre-order pickup) issuing digital reservations/physical cards until at least 3 hours before the store opening. This of course is public knowledge already as far as the procedures go (so people will know when to be at the line to get that reservation).
Likewise, you don’t want to encourage a situation where reservations are issued beginning x-amount of hours beforehand (as all you do is shift when people begin showing up to wait for their reservation). There is no simple solution; not even additional security because they cannot be watching every part of the queue constantly.
