Alexa
Capozzoli
DEPARTMENT STORES
When we think of department stores in the United States, we think of places like Belk, Macy's, and Target. In Italy, they also have their own department stores. One of Italy's most popular department stores is Coin. I was surprised about how many similarities there were with Coin and a department store in the United States like Macy's. To me, it seemed like a department store that I would see in the United States.
To the right is a picture of the inside of a Coin department store in Florence, Italy. We observed the layout of the store and other things like pricing. The layout was typical to what you think of a department store. There were multiple floors which were sectioned off into different products. There were different stands for the different makeup companies they sold- just like when you walk into a Macy's. They sold a wide variety of products like makeup, handbags, shoes, men's clothing, and women's clothing. This is similar to any other department store. Just like in the United States too, each section had subsections of the designer. The pricing was a little different though. In the United States, we tend to see a variety in pricing in these types of stores. The prices tended to be more on the expensive side in Coin with less variety.
FRATELLINI AT SAN LORENZO MARKET
One activity that we had was exploring the San Lorenzo Market in Florence, Italy. I had stopped to look at the wallets at one pop-up shop and they also had a store. The company is Fratellini and the salesman was very kind and answered all of our questions about the market. He told us that he pays about 6000 euro a year in taxes for the store and it costs more to have the pop-up store in the market than the store itself. It is easier on him to have the store because he can bring the inventory right out every day and can just store it in the store unlike other vendors who do not have stores right near by. He informed us that a lot of the vendors on the market have products that are "made in Italy" but they found a loophole. The products are technically made in Italy, but they are made by the Chinese just located in Italy. He also let us know that snake is the most expensive and buffalo is the most versatile. In their store they do carry a few different brands as well as their own, but the other brands are more expensive than their own. I was very fortunate to find such a nice and informative salesman who was willing to share his experiences.
SPECIALTY STORE
Just like in the United States, Italy had specialty stores. I noticed that they had a lot more than we do though. I believe this has to do with the smaller shop sizes. In Italy, their buildings usually are very old so they need to work with the architecture there is rather than building the design of a store to your personal liking. These specialty stores simply specialize in one product. One store that we visited while in Florence, Italy, pictured to the left, specialized in leather bags.
In the store pictured on the left, there wasn't much variation in the merchandising mix. They had all types of bags in different shapes and sizes, but nothing else. Majority were like pocketbooks or work bags of some sort, but there were bigger ones as you can see in the lower left part of the picture that could be used for luggage. A similar specialty store we have in the United States is Coach. Coach specializes in bags, but they have a wider mix of products. For example they use more than just one material and they have more than just bags. They have bags, wallets, belts, and have now even expanded to shoes and some clothing items.
In terms of pricing, I find specialty stores in the United States to be more money. The specialty stores that I studied abroad had a variety of prices, but also held certain promotions. It is very rare that a specialty store in the United States runs a promotion. I believe this is because specialty stores in the United States are less common so they believe they can charge more where in Italy they are probably the most common type of store.
