New Yorkers on the hunt for a new iPhone may have trouble scoring one quickly — thanks to the coronavirus.
Wireless retailers around the city have either run out of stock or are running low on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models as carriers stockpile them at nearby warehouses, store employees told The Post.
Employees at numerous retail locations around Manhattan contacted by The Post uniformly told the same story of low stock and infrequent shipments, with little guidance as to when things might get back to normal.
“We don’t have an ETA on any of the shipments,” a Verizon employee of an Upper East Side store said. “It’s a Verizon-wide issue.”
The popular iPhone 11 Pro has been out of stock for “at least a couple of weeks,” a worker at an Upper East Side AT&T store explained, adding that there’s no telling when the store’s next shipment will be.
“We got a shipment and it didn’t have any iPhones in it – just flip phones and Samsungs,” said a Verizon store employee on the Upper West Side.
Asked if it was a coronavirus related issue, the employee said, “I guess so.”
An AT&T employee downtown said store inventory has been low “because of the whole thing that’s been going on lately,” referencing the coronavirus, which put a halt to Apple’s Chinese factories for an extended period last month.
The employee explained that iPhone inventory is low because the phones are being kept at warehouses instead of at stores — a tactic that carriers might be using to control the supply chain in case of a shortage.
Customers who request a phone in-store can arrange for 2-day delivery, the employee said.
Indeed, a scan of iPhone availability at Manhattan AT&T stores showed most locations only had one or two devices available in the most popular colors and configurations, if they had any at all.
Sprint stores also showed a low supply of iPhone models available for same-day pick-up according to the company website, though they did offer 3-day shipping for every model.
Representatives for Verizon, AT&T and Apple did not respond to multiple request for comment.
Source: Nypost
