Benetton closes the store at the Duomo in Milan

The historic Benetton in Milan's Duomo square will close. The Italian brand had opened the doors of its 1,750 square meter mega-store in 2003 replacing the historic Galtrucco fabric store. Not that things went wrong for the store: Benetton itself had even proposed to the City of Milan in a rental offer of 2.8 million a year in 2017, an increase compared to the 650 thousand euros paid until then. The change of course was decided by the pandemic, as the company said in a statement:

«The pandemic has led us to reconsider our commercial strategy, in particular that relating to large-area shops. The current strategy of the company and the context lead us to favor stores between 160-250 square meters at the moment over megastores».

The situation would therefore seem to shed a light on the possible future of fast fashion: the strategy of capillary presence would seem preferable to the model of the megastore which, in the absence of tourist flows but also of city traffic, sees its performances damaged that would require, precisely, a more agile model. For example, H&M, Zara and Gap have already closed some of their stores in Italy, changing their strategy. As for the huge commercial space developed on three levels that will now be freed up in the Duomo, the City of Milan will soon indicate a tender to find a new occupant.