Yea, you could stop at the apple store today and see what their plans are for next friday.
It’s COVID - nothing is normal.
With our store, you have to have an appointment - shopping OR repairs, doesn’t matter. I kind of doubt you could just show up and get in then. Even walkups were being directed to scan a QR code to make an appointment.
Two ways to shop:
You can buy online for in store scheduled pickup, or schedule an appointment with a shopping specialist. For my Apple watch: on release day I noticed that the store had a watch with the band I wanted in stock vs. my preorder which was weeks away - so I bought online and scheduled a pick up appointment. A few days later I wasn’t sure about the Solo loop size, so I scheduled a shopping specialist appointment. I scheduled a shopping appointment to return the watch too but I had a repair appointment too that I scheduled 15 min apart.
Shopping appointments are only going 3 days out so I can’t tell what they’ll next next Friday.
Google ‘Apple shop with specialist’.