I saw a ridiculous ton of hype for the phone both prior to and after the release of the phone, but I acknowledge that may well be due to the fact that I look in all the places likely to make a huge fuss over such a device.

On the carrier front though, retail stores that were actually marketing to end users, I guess this is as good an illustration of my point as any;

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/11/nexus_one_sales/