There’s a pizza place in New Haven, CT called Pepe’s that we try to hit every chance we get, usually on the drive up to or back from Vermont. It opened in 1925, and what’s kind of amazing about that is people are still - today - lining up outside the door to get at the spectacular creations that come out of the ovens inside.
You could drive there right now and chances are excellent you would see a long line of customers extending down Wooster Street, waiting to buy one of these pies Frank Pepe started cranking out all those years ago. And it’s worth it. They really are that good.
The place, and the notion of what it takes to get people to actually stand in line to wait for what you sell - especially for 86 years in a row - ran through my mind today when photos of people lining up outside Apple stores and other locations waiting to get their hands on the iPhone 4S started hitting my Twitter feed.
It’s become the norm for Apple, expected consumer behavior, across different products, and even different generations of products, which is pretty incredible. Because the thing about getting people to line up, repeatedly, over an extended period of time, is that you can’t disappoint. You can’t fake it. You might be able to trick them once, but it will never happen again. There has to be a motivation, driven by expectation, and a payoff, driven by experience. And Apple - uniquely in its space - delivers on the promise of both.
When you walk out of Pepe’s - stuffed to the gills, carefully cradling the slices you couldn’t finish in a take-out box with Frank’s picture on it - the first thing you hit is the line. Famished and wild-eyed aspirants out there on the street, or in the little waiting room on the other side of the interior door, getting close enough to taste it. Veterans mulling the finer points of their order. Newbies wondering whether what they’ve endured will be worth it.
You feel a sense of affirmation, “See, we’re not crazy,” but you don’t need it. The only affirmation that really matters comes from what you just consumed, what it tasted like, the sublime crusty goodness, the tang of perfect sauce, and the fact that you can’t get that exact experience anywhere else.
Quality. Being inconvenienced and enduring some form of incremental hardship or annoyance to experience something extraordinary. Something that represents achievement at the highest level. Something, well, worth standing in line for.
The people outside Apple stores today have a lot in common with those lined up in front of Pepe’s. Given the history, neither group is likely to be disappointed, or to stop anytime soon.
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