Microsoft Arrives at Whitman Shops

Update: Lightning forced the John Legend concert indoors. Audience members said that Taio Cruz performed before the weather turned bad.

Microsoft opened its retail store with a splash Friday, welcomed by town and county officials and customers who had lined up as early as Thursday night.

Revved-up employees cheered from behind the curtain as the opening approached and then dashed about the store as customers moved into the bright and colorful new space at Walt Whitman Shops, just two doors away from the temporary Apple store quarters.

As part of the ceremony, it handed out checks representing software donations to several organizations, including Junior Achievement, the Children's Aid Society and the Mentoring Partnership of Long Island.

 Some people in the crowd seemed primarily interested in winning wristbands for the  Friday night Legend-Cruz concert, a tie-in to the store's opening, while others were there to check out new products and pick the brains of employees.

David McAughan, chief operating officer of Microsoft stores, said that in addition to selling products, the store will also host small-business events and otherwise participate in community activities.

Huntington Patch will have more on this story later.