University Village Apple Store — image courtesy of Apple
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Protesters alleging Apple is complicit in child abuse have blocked the University Village Apple Store in Seattle, Washington, forcing Apple to close early on Black Friday.
Apple's Black Friday sales were reportedly disrupted by protesters concerned about the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestine. According to local news station KomoNews in Seattle, Washington, Apple eventually closed its store, with police warning the remaining protesters that they were now trespassing.
Protest at Apple store in U Village, store now closed on Black Friday, and protesters say they were invaded and told they would be arrested if they didn't leave @komonews pic.twitter.com/ZcgRTlpzjx
— Lynnanne Nguyen (@LynnanneNguyen) November 29, 2024
“These are the biggest shopping days of the year,” protester Flowers Smith told the station. “It's the most important day for consumers and the day they make the most money off the hands of people who are as young as 5 years old and working in mines.”
“So this is a day where we can fight back and say we're not going to tolerate this,” Smith continued.
This protest follows one in April 2024, when an Apple Store was also forced to close. In that case, it was the Apple Store in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, and the protest was sparked in part by Apple’s alleged discipline of at least one employee for wearing pro-Palestinian clothing.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has alleged that Apple sources 3T materials — tin, tungsten, and tantalum — from the region, which meant it was funding violent groups, something Apple has previously denied.
The report does not say how many protesters were at the Apple Store in University Village. One short video from the station shows no more than six people outside the store, while another shows possibly eight.
One of those videos claims that the protesters were planning to leave at 3 p.m. local time. It’s unclear whether that was because the store was closed or because it was open later.
Apple University Village was scheduled to close at 8 p.m. local time.
The current store opened in 2018 after more than a year of construction. At the time, it was located 200 feet from a Microsoft store, though Microsoft subsequently abandoned retail stores entirely in 2020.
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