China’s IPhone 6 Craving Leads to Fistfight in Connecticut

Companies can drive global hype with a slow release of a new product. The iPhone 6 is assembled in China, but consumers in that nation may have to wait months for the device to appear on store shelves. Enterprising traders in the United States see an opportunity to snap up phones for resale in China at four times the price or more, but some stores limit sales per customer. Traders accrue a large supply by recruiting and dispatching agents to wait in long lines. Fights broke out among rivals from New York at a New Haven, Connecticut, store two hours away from the City.. The iPhone 5 debuted in China and US at the same time, but time lags on previous models resulted in the smuggling of millions of phones. A New Haven police spokesman blamed Apple for the disorder. Consumer decisions and retail practices on one side of the world are inextricably connected to consumerism across the globe. – YaleGlobal