Where to Buy the iPhone 5 in and Near Benicia

The next generation iPhone is coming out Friday, September 21 and there are a handful of places in and around Benicia to buy it.

The Apple website points customers to the following locations:

• 834 Southampton Drive in the Southampton Shopping Center,
• AT&T, 976 Admiral Callaghan Lane, Suite D, 707-552-1265
• Verizon Wireless, 1189 Admiral Callaghan Lane, 707-647-3153
• Best Buy, 1182 Admiral Callaghan Lane

The smartphone officially goes on sale Sept. 21 at 8 a.m., but all stores may not stock the iPhone 5 immediately.

A representative at the Radio Shack in Benicia said the shop might get some phones for sale to walk in customers but they wouldn’t know until Thursday night.  He said the store has taken about 30 preorders for the phone.

A salesperson at the Best Buy in Vallejo said the store would have the phone in stock and that a line is expected.

Repeated calls to the Veriszon Store in Vallejo were met with a busy signal.

According to a Target salesperson in Vallejo, the store won't have the phone available for sale Friday morning.  However, anyone who preordered at Target will be able to pick up their new phone Friday and anyone who wants to order an iPhone 5 on Friday will be aboe to do so at Target.

To see other stores neatr Benicia selling the phones use this tool on Apple’s website. You can search for both Apple stores and other retailers. Read carefully because not all stores listed carry phones. Make sure to select "iPhone" from the "Products" drop-down menu. You may want to call local stores to confirm you'll be able to find what you're looking for.

Bay Area representatives for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have said their stores will open at 8 a.m. Friday to service customers.

AT&T spokesman John Britton said AT&T security would be “beefed up” and stores would be “staffed to the max” to get people through the expected wait as fast and efficiently as possible. He said the demand can be somewhat unpredictable.

“You can never say for sure if there are going to be lines. Some of the launches have had more people waiting than others,” said Britton. “One year they started forming at 3 o’clock in the afternoon the day before.”

He said the largest line he could recall drew 130 people to wait outside a San Francisco store in the Financial District.

Britton also noted that this will be AT&T’s sixth iPhone launch since 2007, when the company initially was the only cell provider to offer the model.

“We've been through this before,” he said. “We’re ready.”

Verizon spokeswoman Heidi Flato said its stores would "be fully staffed with trained sales reps available to assist customers on Friday."

She encouraged customers to use the online pre-order process to avoid waiting in line but added, via email, "we are prepared to handle additional foot traffic at our retail locations when iPhone 5 becomes available on September 21."

A Sprint representative did not respond to requests about how its stores were preparing for the sale.

The new iPhone is thinner and lighter than the last two generations, but it is taller to accommodate a bigger screen. Apple says its processing speed is much faster than its predecessors, as well.

The iPhone 5 starts at $649, but the price can come down to as low as $200 with a cellular plan subscription.

iPhone 5 sales could boost economic growth in the U.S. by a third of a percentage point during the fourth quarter, J.P.Morgan anticipates. However, NPR's Planet Money says J.P.Morgan's analysis is faulty, predicting that most who splurge on the new product before the end of the year will likely cut back on other spending, making it a zero-sum game.

Know other stores near Benicia that carry the iPhone? Are you planning to queue up? Is the whole thing over-hyped? Leave a comment below to let us know. 

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If there’s something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor JB Davis at 707-628-0051 or email him at benicia@patch.com.