Herbie Gets There First

No, the Stones weren’t coming to town. Herbie J. Zampano camped out on line nights in advance not to buy concert tickets, but to crash New Haven’s new downtown Apple store — and he didn’t necessarily need a new computer.

Zampano, like hundreds of other Jobsian pilgrims, got caught up in Apple-mania, helping to turn the opening of the new store on Broadway Saturday morning into the hottest show in town since … well, the Coliseum closed.

Zampano (pictured above), who’s 62, claimed the first place in line outside the story beginning on Tuesday night. Yes, Tuesday night, not Friday. (The second person arrived around 5:30 a.m. Saturday.) Zampano, who lives in Branford and owns a recycling company, was hoping to get an early glimpse at the iPhone 5.

But mostly, said Zampano, a longtime member of a roller-coaster enthusiasts club, he camped out because he just wanted to be first. ​“It’s become a habit,” he said.

Kathleen Francis, a former New Havener who now lives in Milford, didn’t come to buy Saturday. She doesn’t need much, since she’s already got an iPhone, an iPad, and a slew of Macs dating back to Apple’s early days in the personal-computing business. Francis, 49, wore a duster jacket (pictured) made of old iMac advertising banners and sported a tattoo of the company’s old, rainbow-apple logo.

“I’m enjoying just being here,” she said.

The experience had something of a cult feel to it, from the gauntlet of employees to the reverence of the customers, most of whom toted some kind of Apple product (often using those iPhones or iPads to record the moment).

The audience skewed younger, with plenty of kids giving their parents tutorials or just commandeering the machines themselves.

Just before blue-T-shirt-clad employees flung open the glass doors at 10 a.m. Saturday, the line to get in snaked almost all the way to the intersection where Whalley Avenue, Tower Parkway and Goffe Street come together. The throng was there to get a free T‑shirt, check out the gadgets inside — and make a pilgrimage to Apple’s latest outpost.

The employees were fired up, chanting, clapping and whooping both inside and outside before welcoming customers with high fives and exhortations. (Click on the play arrow to watch the scene.) The customers were clearly psyched, too: in addition to what many of them called the cool factor of having an Apple outlet here, Mac devotees won’t have to schlep to Westfarms Mall in Farmington for service or advice anymore.

Sister Maureen Flynn (pictured), 48, lives in Hamden and is the principal at Sacred Heart Academy. The school uses a Mac to do graphic design, so she came in Saturday to pick up a Magic Trackpad for the machine. She won’t have much use for the T‑shirt, but thought it would be fun to come on opening day.

“I think it’s great. It’s going to be a reason to come down here,” she said, adding that the adjacent Yale Bookstore offered an additional enticement.

Some customers got help at the ​“Genius Bar” that lines the back wall of the store, or sought advice from employees (who were equipped with iPhones that could scan credit cards, the better to take your money).

Others scanned the dozens of accessories on the walls.

Johnny Teague (pictured), a location manager at Elm City College Preparatory School, came in Saturday hoping that the iPad 3 might be ready — so he could get a deal on the iPad 2. No such luck, but he did enjoy playing with the toys on display. The students and his colleagues at the school call him ​“Inspector Gadget,” because he keeps up on what’s new and can help the less plugged-in navigate their smartphones.

It was Teague’s first time in an Apple store, but far from his first experience with the company.

“I got one in each pocket,” he said, laughing, when asked whether he was an Apple guy. One side held an iPhone; the other had an iPod.

By 10:45, there was still a line to pass under the beacon of the glowing white apple. Next door, the Yale Bookstore was nearly empty.