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Apple Shows Off Photos of New Piazza Liberty Store in Milan

StudioSanctum said:
Did anyone notice that the design looks like what could be a modular Mac Pro? ;)
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Yes and the fountain symbolises the water cooling system to avoid CPU throttling :D

I went there yesterday almost 2 hours after opening and there was still a huge line outside, just like for iPhone launches. I didn't have time to wait so I'll get there next week to have a look inside.
The square looks stunning, the fountain is really cool and I bet the restaurants and bars in the squadre are really happy since there is going to be a lot of people all day long.
 
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Looks lovely and is impressive, good to see them spending the effort on it.

The clapping though, oh god that is just so painfully cringey. It is still just a shop where they sell stuff.
 
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sofila said:
26 centuries old city and finally we have an Apple store located downtown. What a time to be alive
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LOL. I travel to Milan every 1-2 years and have always wondered how there was never an Apple Store downtown. Looking forward to checking it out this fall.
 
Vjosullivan said:
230 employees at one store?
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The store is opened from 10am to 9pm so 11 hours, 7 days a week. At least there are two shifts during each day and I guess at least 20 people will be in the AS at any time, not counting the guys repairing stuff for the genius bar. 200 people seems a reasonable number of people to me
 
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This week I am going to get a vintage Macbook Air that is fully loaded before they stop selling them. Seeing this store reminds me of the Apple experience when visiting an Apple store.
 
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profets said:
LOL. I travel to Milan every 1-2 years and have always wondered how there was never an Apple Store downtown. Looking forward to checking it out this fall.
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Downtown Milan is full of people (most of them tourist), in particular the avenue next to the shop, I think it was a good choice for Apple.
As far as I remember they wanted to have the store into the Galleria, just next to Duomo (here a couple of pics) but in the end they lost against Prada who got there so piazza Liberty was the second choice. In piazza Liberty they had the ability to overhaul the square, in Galleria they'd have a lot of restrictions since it is an historical place, so in the end I'm happy they went to Liberty.
Having the store downtown is really convenient to a lot of people like me so we can have a genius bar appointment after work or during the lunch break.


galleria.jpg

34a3acd3-8298-40ac-bca9-1c9cee616bc8.jpg
 
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NightFox said:
I'm not sure I'd class a company building a new store (or modernising an old one) to lure more customers in and increase profits as 'giving back' in any way.
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Yeah and all of the stores on the inside looks the same. I agree with you, making an establishment look nice is not giving back and its purpose is to make a customer want to come in and feel more at ease. Giving back is something you give and not expecting something in return. Opening a retail store is expecting sales and profits.

It is a nice retail store but they all look the same. I don't mind the setup and decor Apple chosen and the one good thing they have maintained was choosing to make the inside of the store well-lit.
 
simnew said:
And PS Apple.....

You are in Italy and the location is actually Piazza Liberta

Italian is one of the most beautiful languages and there really isn't a need to Americanise absolutely everything.

If I was an Italian mega brand - like say Prada, Gucci, Ferrari etc, and I had a sales outlet on Times Square, that Italian brand wouldn't call it Square di Tempi

This will mainly be used by Local Italians due to its location and it's a shame a little more thought couldn't have gone into something as simple as the name given the thought and hard work that has obviously gone into the architecture and finish of the building.
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Liberty in Italian means Art Nouveau architecture, as opposed to Libertà which means Liberty.

The square il called Piazza del Liberty, even though everybody in Milan calls it Piazza Liberty.

PS Trunks78 already explained...
 
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NightFox said:
I'm not sure I'd class a company building a new store (or modernising an old one) to lure more customers in and increase profits as 'giving back' in any way.
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Apple had to pay about 4 millions EUR to the city of Milan in order to get the permission to build the new store, so in that sense we can say the citizens are gaining something. And the more people you lure to the square, the more will have something at a bar or a restaurant, so you have more money for other activities as well.
In an era when a lot of shops are closing because of ecommerce I'm happy if a company invests in a physical place to sell its stuff.
 
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BornAgainMac said:
This week I am going to get a vintage Macbook Air that is fully loaded before they stop selling them.
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I agree that a laptop should be all-in-one, i.e., no dongles, because it is portable. If it is a desktop with all these USB-C ports that need another pound of tangled cords and devices to use, I can organize my desk and work without constantly having to attach and detach cables. I did buy the 15" 2015 last year.

You should hurry up in buying such a model, as Apple doesn't sell them anymore and a few NY online retailers still have them, still cheaper than the current models. Cheers!
 
swingerofbirch said:
You just know a Gateway Country store is going to open right across from it.

(For those who don't know the reference Gateway 2000--later Gateway--was a PC manufacturer that had a good number of retail stores that offered a similar experience to what Apple does today. They were shutting them down a few years after Apple opened its first retail stores. Apple was considered crazy for going into retail in 2001, especially because it had only just started to recover. Here's an ad for Gateway Country:
I actually remember liking the Gateway Country store I went to even though I was a Mac guy.)
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What doesn't seem as well known- or remembered- is that, for a while, Gateway owned Amiga (computer) and there was an internal effort with some momentum to run with Amiga again. I perceived the idea was to take something unique and where profit margin could be greater than commodity PC wars allowed, and evolve Gateway into something more than it was.

Momentum seemed strong giving the Amiga community that still clung to that platform some hope of a bona-fide revival. And then Gateway pulled that plug (sold Amiga), opting to stick with what it knew- PC clones- instead of investing in something new and different (and likely more profitable per unit).

I wonder what would have happened if Gateway had really given that strategic thrust a good try. Amiga was basically (much of) macOS long before OS X, able to do things that PCs and Macs could not do at that time. Personally, I would have loved to see a reinvigorated Amiga give some push to the other 2 players. Imagine those Gateway stores with brand new technology Amigas in the early 2000's.
 
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Falhófnir said:
Hmm Apple are usually more tactful than to put an anonymous glass cube in the middle of a beautiful historic city. I guess the saving grace is it’s relatively plainer setting and that it’s small and discrete enough to not be considered a carbuncle
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Milan isn't a beautiful historic city. It's certainly no Rome. It has a nice central square but is primarily a place to do business or some upscale shopping. There are plenty of architectural mediocrities there already.
 
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Hmm. Not so much of a waterfall as a line of jets spraying up at either side of a glass enclosure.
 
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