Italian Retail
Interview #1:
My first interview took place on 11/19/17 in Venice in a small sportswear shop. A group of us were walking around and decided to check it out. Because of the shops location on the ‘Ponte di Rialto’ bridge, the store itself was very small. Upon entering the store we quickly figured out it was not a “browsing” store. We looked around anyways and started digging through piles of jerseys and other apparel. At one point the store manager/owner asked us what we were looking for. We told him we were just looking around, to which he replied: “You tell me what you want, and I can help you find it. This isn’t like your big department store.” The message was very direct, but also very true.
I kept the conversation going for the sake of this interview. In my time with the manager, he told me a number of things related to tourism and what retail is like in Venice. First, he made it clear that most stores in Venice, Florence, and Rome are tourist retail shops, but they are very different among the three cities. Because of the size of Venice and how crammed the island itself is, many shops are very small in size. However, the cost of rent in Venice is still very pricy. This makes many business ventures impossible if they cannot drive enough customers and revenue.
Interview #2:
My second interview took place in a laundromat in Rome with the owner. I found out that the owner also owned a similar dry cleaning shop around the corner. He did not speak very good English, but I tried to ask him a number of questions. One thing that I quickly noticed was that he ran the laundromat, while his wife managed the dry cleaning store around the corner. I think this really emphasizes the importance and reliance on family owned businesses in Italy. He told me that rent in Rome is expensive, but doable with a successful businesses (or two). I think his location among Rome also help in making his shops survive. The laundromat was located just off of ‘Via del Corso’; one of the main shopping districts in Rome.
Summary:
One thing I took away from both of these interviews was how successful each of these businesses do with limited retail space. In the U.S. we tend to think bigger is better. There seems to be a correlation between the size of retail stores and the success of those stores, which isn’t neccesarily true in Europe.