Rant: Why is Apple Opening an Ugly Betty Store in Chic Milan?

Nicole Martinelli ()

@Fotogramma Stefano De Grandis

@Fotogramma Stefano De Grandis

Apple decides to open doors in Milan — recently named more fashionable than New York — so you’d think it’d be somewhere the city’s whippet-thin Pradamatons would want to be seen sashaying into.

Instead, Apple is opening its first Milan store this Saturday in a place called Carugate. It’s 15 km away from the city center,  a place best known to locals because Ikea also calls it home.

It’ll be in a mall — note the pic above of a woman with a grocery cart — and hopefully  the inside layout is a bit more interesting than the storefront. And instead of having 24/7 access, like many Italian malls, it’s usually closed on Sundays.

Rumors were that Apple’s first Milan store would be a former Stefanel store in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, a pedestrian shopping zone favored by locals and tourists who stroll from the Cathedral to Piazza San Babila.

Next time I need anything, I’ll be heading to the  reseller in the chic Brera area — used as a fashion shoot backdrop and where staff wears “Steve Jobs for Mayor” T-shirts.

People: location, location, location.

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About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple related, email her about it.

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Posted in Opinions, Retail Stores |

  • Rodney

    The Rome store is the same – way outside the city in a mall that’s very difficult to get to without a car. It’s a nice a store with nice staff, but it’s a pity there isn’t something in the centre, on via Dal Corso for example.

  • http://www.gabry.eu Gabriele Barni

    that is a really good question! , i am wondering the same..
    I live in Monza, just 10 minutes car away from the brand new Apple Store.. some rumors say that this is only the first Apple Store in Milano , followed by another much more downtown …but if it’s taken so long to get this…

    btw I am very happy for the opening ! , and maybe saturday morning i will be there.

  • Greg Speck

    Vittorio Emanuele is a beautiful location. BUT, put it where the traffic is. Parking and access are better there.

  • http://mr63.com mmmark

    Taking a good look at the picture you can see the logo of the big box electronics store gigant Saturn in the window. Saturn is a shop that is one of those shops that draws heaps of clientele to the mall so Apple setting up shop opposite of this is not that strange.

    Add Ikea to this and you have a guaranteed success.

    Shops like this opening up close to each other is the same as McDonald’s opening up somewhere. You can bet your money on it that other food stores will follow as before McDonald’s opens up they have done their sums and then you know it that there is market for the other food stores too.

  • Joe

    I agree with the poster about the Rome store. I don’t have a car, went to the end the metro, took a bus for 20 minutes then walked another 15. Whoever their strategist is for the European market needs a serious spanking vis-a-vis italy. It would be like putting the first New York store in Jersey

    Apple needs to open one each in the centre of (1) Rome (2) Milan–Apple and Milan are MADE for each other–in a MALL??? How American (3) Florence, (4) Genova and (5) Venice

    If you ask me, Apple should STOP opening US stores; if there are 200 in the US, then that means 1/1.5 million population–that’s enough; better to be reasonably crowded than to suffer the embarrassment of closing any of them down in the future; in Europe that ratio is 1/40 million; lots of room for expansion; oh yeah enough in the UK for the moment, may in edinburgh, glasgow and newcastle (do they have them there yet?); stockholm, Helsinki, Amst, Copen, Brus, Oslo, another 6 in france, and 8 in Germany, don’t forget Vienna, Geneva, Zurich, Madrid X 2, Barcelona X 3, Valencia, Lisbon, athens, Istanbul, Warsaw, Prague, and Krakow

  • http://www.kostik.de/home/2009/8/29/opening-apple-store-in-hamburg-germany.html Konstantin

    The same mysterious thing happened this weekend in Hamburg/Germany. http://www.kostik.de/home/2009/8/29/opening-apple-store-in-hamburg-germany.html
    Apple opened its store not in the city, but 30 minutes away from there. I’m wondering why?..

  • Charli

    i would have to wonder if rent is a factor in the areas chosen.

  • MacSheikh

    “Steve Jobs For Mayor” t-shirts? Where can I get one? :-)

  • http://www.zoomata.com Nicole Martinelli

    MacSheikh — I’m afraid you’ll have to come to Milan to get one…Or see if Leander will part with his, I think I sent him one. NB: it says it in Italian, though..

  • Reed Richards

    Dude! Carugate is a dump and the crowds that go there are not exactly what I expect the Apple buyers to be.

    Also, Nicole is right: shopping malls in Italy are usually closed on Sundays while shops in the historic center can always stay open. I think it’s because of a stupid labour law, that favours tourist shopping downtown.

  • imajoebob

    Nobody “shops” in central Milan. That is, no one except tourists and poseurs. Apple can sell computers and iPods to the tourists in their home countries. The Germans in their socks and sandals aren’t in Milan to buy an iPhone. The Yanks in their basketball shoes aren’t in Milan to buy MacBooks. And the Brits in their – well, the only thing consistent with the Brits is that it will be hideous – aren’t there to buy iPods. Central Milan is for tourists and designers who only sell one product a month to cover the rent.

    If you want to sell to the locals, you go to where the locals shop: the mall. The mall on the outskirts of town where all the customers live. And when you’re Apple, you don’t have to open a shop at a stylish address; wherever you open becomes a stylish address.

  • anna

    I live near Carugate. Nearer than Carugate is the subway that takes me to downtown Milan. But I think apple couldn’t choose a better location for the store. Most people in Milan live in places like Carugate and don’t go to milan unless they have a job there. Surely there would be customer even there. But not much more than in a place like Carugate.. That mall has been there for decades (way before the very recent Ikea). You can buy anything there. People living even 30km away come there to shop regularly already. It doesn’t have a target market. You can buy shoes worth 30 or 300 èuros. You just have to take a bus from the subway and you’re there in 10 minutes. It’s easier and less expensive to reach by car.
    To me, it seems an accurate choice..

  • aida_lover

    does anybody know how to get from milan city (duomo) to apple store in carugate by public transportation? im there the coming weekend and want to buy an iphone there….