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Big shiny apple

Everyone’s MacHappy in Montreal as the Apple flagship opens on Ste. Catherine St.

MONTREAL - Ten minutes before opening its doors to the public at 5 p.m., employees of the Montreal Apple store embarked on a preparation rite of clapping, cheering and hooting. Outside, Apple’s first customers had been waiting in line all day.

No, they weren’t waiting to buy an iPhone, since the store doesn’t sell them. There were no special discounts; all computers and iPods were at full price.

They waited in line because Apple has crafted a brand so flawless that its fans happily wait under the summer sun as long as 10 hours to be the first ones inside.

“They’re sick. They’re nuts,” muttered a passerby.

The doors swung open and Joëlle Gariépy, the first one in line, was ushered into a corridor of screaming, high-fiving Apple clerks.

She had been waiting since 7:15 a.m. She doesn’t have money to buy anything inside, but hopes to one day own the ultra-thin MacBook Air laptop.

“We have to be here on the D-Day. It’s really cool,” she said before going in.

The new store, at 1321 Ste. Catherine St. W., is the first flagship store in Canada, and seventh overall. Small outlets exist in shopping centres, but not the two-storied stand-alone shops that have become a central part of Apple’s marketing.

Other such stores can be found in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, London, Tokyo, and the storied glass box on Mahattan’s 5th Ave.

Local Mac heads have been waiting for this day for a year, since rumours of its landing first surfaced in the Apple speculation digest AppleInsider.com. The Gazette later confirmed with the building owner, and with its former tenant, that the Cupertino, Calif. company would be the next occupant.

In the fall, the building was shrouded in a black wooden shield, keeping the construction inside a mystery.

Yesterday, metal barriers kept customers in line on Ste. Catherine St. and up Crescent St. Some were treated to Apple-branded parasols and bottles of water.

“I came here to witness the art of manipulating humanity,” said Paul Dawalibi, a venture capitalist who invests in technology startups.

“Apple managed to make people want something so badly, they willingly put up with this.

“It’s all about appealing to emotion.”

The company owes much of its recent success to its maverick chief executive, Steve Jobs, who is considered a marketing genius. The company’s fortunes are so tied to Jobs that rumours that his health is failing have sent shares tumbling despite record profits.

They rose again Thursday after the New York Times reported Jobs is cancer-free, and that his gaunt appearance is due to weight loss after an operation this year.

rrocha@thegazette.canwest.com

© Montreal Gazette 2008

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