Opening
The launch party on 5 December 1967 was attended by John Lennon and George Harrison with their wives, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Cilla Black and Kenneth Tynan sipping apple juice as the shop had no alcohol licence. Invitations read "Come at 7.46. Fashion Show at 8.16." suggesting a degree of precision and planning not subsequently realized in the management of the business. Footage of the event shows Simon Posthuma playing Arabic music on a flute, Barry Finch playing a small drum, and Josje Leeger playing finger cymbals to the guests.
Lennon's friend Peter Shotton managed the store with Pattie Harrison's sister Jenny Boyd. The Apple shop was a financial disaster. Theft was endemic. Customers helped themselves to the stock, as did staff members, who had difficulty determining which things people had come in with and which they had picked up in the shop. The ethos of the venture and those operating it was antipathetic to making accusations of shop-lifting or of calling for the police. The Fool's members also made a habit of taking their choice of the merchandise.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)