U.S. luxury retailer Nordstrom opened its first store in Canada Friday, and the CEO says the company will offer Canadian shoppers a different experience than their stores south of the border.

Hundreds of shoppers were lined up outside the Chinook Centre early Friday waiting for the doors to open, reported BNN’s Western Bureau Chief Jameson Berkow. More than 1,000 people were combing through the merchandise within 10 minutes of its opening, he said.

Calgary shoppers will notice that the store has been tailored to the local market, Berkow said, noting that cowboy boots were front and centre in the shoe department.

“It’s a little bit of a different experience for Nordstrom Canada versus what they might experience if they go south of the border and shopped at an American location,” Berkow told CTV News Channel from Calgary. “It’s different pricing, different product lines. It’s all being tailored for local audiences.”

Nordstrom Direct President Erik Nordstrom, great-grandson of the company’s founder, told Berkow that they will replicate the local feel at all Canadian stores.

It will be several months before shoppers in other parts of the country get to try the Nordstrom experience, however. The second store will open at Ottawa’s Rideau Centre on Mar. 6, 2015.

Meanwhile:

  • A Vancouver location at the Pacific Centre is scheduled to open on Sept. 18, 2015;
  • Toronto stores at Yorkdale Shopping Centre and the Eaton Centre are slated to open in Fall 2016;
  • Another GTA store, at the west-end Sherway Gardens, is scheduled to open in Spring 2017.

The Calgary store represents the company’s first location outside of the United States in its 113-year history. The two-level, 140,000-square-foot store has not one, not two, but five shoe departments, a restaurant and an on-site tailor.