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Apple store to open soon in Uptown: Minnesota's oldest Apple dealer is preparing for a new neighbor near Calhoun Square: an Apple store.Jun 12, 2010 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Keith Madonna bought his first Apple computer in 1977, purportedly the first ever sold in Minneapolis. This May, he bought his first Apple iPad. Uptown's FirstTech sold him both -- and generations of Apple products in between. Now FirstTech, Minnesota's oldest Apple dealer, is preparing to welcome a new Hennepin Avenue neighbor -- Apple. Apple has yet to announce the store opening, and a spokeswoman declined to provide any details. However, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company lists Uptown Minneapolis among the five "new stores, new opportunities" on its website. The Apple store could open as early as this month. Ned Rukavina, senior vice president of retail for NorthMarq, a commercial real estate company, said he's been told the store will be on Hennepin just south of Lake Street. Friday afternoon, plywood and scaffolding covered a construction site at 3018 Hennepin Av. S., between the Columbia Sportswear store and the Suburban World theater. At FirstTech, brothers Fred and Allan Evans, the sales and marketing managers, respectively, were shocked to learn that their longtime supplier would become their new competition. "In a perfect world, you probably wouldn't want someone selling the same product coming in down the street," Fred Evans said. Still, Evans and others at FirstTech remain optimistic as they field questions about the new store four blocks away. "I think we all have a pretty good answer," Evans said. "We do a lot of things that they don't." While Apple stores sell just the company's own products and make repairs on recent models, FirstTech offers additional accessories and repairs all Apple products, in-store or on-location. FirstTech also offers on-site training for its customers and is ramping up special promotions in preparation for the new store, Allan Evans said. The store's evening hours also have been expanded to match its newest competitor. FirstTech co-owner Harvey Zuckman said those distinctions set the two apart. "We're not trying to duplicate what they do. Why should we?" Zuckman said. And he's hopeful that will help them in the future, too. In the past, FirstTech has received customer referrals from the area's four current Apple stores, located at Mall of America and malls in Edina, Minnetonka and Roseville. The Uptown location, Apple's fifth, will be the first in Minneapolis proper. Azlan Macleod and Julie Schaller, who dropped by FirstTech Friday to pick up an EyeTV for Macleod, said they'd probably stop by the new store just to check it out. But that doesn't mean either will stop shopping at FirstTech, both said. To prepare for the opening, both stores' management teams have met to talk about ways to work together, Evans said. Still, Madonna, the Apple early bird, wondered why the computer giant chose its Uptown location. When he thinks Apple store, he thinks FirstTech. "You've got a good seller, and I thought, 'Why would they try to put them out of business?'" said Madonna, who recently left a blank check at FirstTech to cover his two iPads when the company was having register troubles. But Fred Evans thought he understood why Apple chose to move in "next door" to an established customer base. "We'd like to take some credit for that," he said. Apple has made similar moves elsewhere, including Chicago and Boston. Michael Oh, president and founder of Tech Superpowers in Boston, an Apple reseller, watched as Apple built across the alley. When the Apple store opened two years ago, Oh witnessed an "immediate and quick drought in business" that lasted for about 18 months. By January, business had started to turn around. Tech Superpower's experience is typical, said Allen. Resellers have three options when Apple stores move in nearby: close, move or diversify. Zuckman chose option number three, although he noted that FirstTech has always offered more than Apple products alone. A portion of the FirstTech's sales also come from business orders, contacts the store began making since its first opened as a small radio shop under a different name in 1941. The company moved to its current location in the late '60s, and agreed to sell a little-known contraption called the Apple II a decade later. At the time, Apple's president and one of its engineers flew to Minneapolis to train employees how to use the new product, Evans said. He didn't recall the president's name. But the engineer's name was more memorable -- Steve Jobs. A glass plaque that honors FirstTech as the first Apple dealer to celebrate 30 years sits on a sales floor shelf. While Fred Evans conceded that FirstTech's customer traffic may drop soon, he doesn't expect to see many business orders going out the door. "We've been here for an awful long time," he said. "It's hard to predict the future, but we'll still be here." Molly Young --612-673-4376 To see more of the Star Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.startribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Star Tribune, Minneapolis Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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