Once you get an alert from any of the following sites, quickly go to the AirPods page on Apple.com, click "Buy," but then choose the "Pickup" option on the page, as seen in the image above.
You'll then see a list of nearby stores, based on the ZIP code you chose.
Most of the stores will say AirPods won't be available for another month, but once you get an alert from any of these sites, you should see a green button instead of the ship dates, which will allow you to buy the AirPods online and pick them up from an Apple store that same day — in as little as one hour.
Fruit Basket was created by Guy Bianco, a programmer based in North Carolina. To me, it's the easiest site to use because it's mostly hands-off, but still effective at alerting you. While the other options can send you emails, Fruit Basket can alert you as long as you keep the tab open on your browser; the site crawls Apple.com every 30 seconds, so there's less of a chance of you missing an opportunity.
So long as you keep the Fruit Basket tab open on your desktop, you can have it alert you via browser notification as soon as there's AirPods stock available — it'll put a notification in the center of your screen, even if you're on another tab — as well as play a sound. It's extremely effective, especially if you're at work and on a computer most of the day.
This was the site that worked for me: As soon as I got the notification that AirPods were available at Grand Central Terminal, I visited Apple's site, found the pick-up option for that store, purchased the AirPods, and picked them up in person — all in less than 30 minutes.
IsInStock can send you text or email notifications as soon as AirPods are available — this site also works for other Apple products and other rare items like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation VR.
To create an alert, you'll need to sign up to receive email and/or text notifications. Signing up also lets you choose which nearby stores you want alerts for, and you can also see a global map of what's in stock around the world in case you're interested.
It's a useful site, but you have to be actively monitoring your phone and/or email for it to be truly effective — I got several emails saying AirPods were available at nearby stores, but since I didn't notice my emails immediately, waiting even just 10 minutes was enough for those units to sell out. Keep this in mind if you use IsInStock.
iStockNow is very similar to IsInStock, in that it can show you a map of global availability for any given product, including non-Apple products like the NES Classic, and alert you via email when stock becomes available.
That said, I found this site most useful by looking at stock in a list format. This provides a way of confirming what the other sites might tell you — are AirPods in stock in this store, or not? — and they'll also show you when those stores sell out to give you an idea of how long available stock actually lasts once it becomes available.
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