Coin Department Store Changes Location

 

The entrance to the Coin department store on via Calzaiuoli

One of the few businesses in the Florence historic center boasting a predominantly local clientele, the Coin department store on via Calzaiuoli is closing on July 31, 2021, and will eventually find a new home sometime in 2022 at the ex-Cinema Capitol on via dei Castellani, across from the exit to the Uffizi Gallery.

Management cited high rent, an unsustainable expense during the pandemic, as the reason for the move.  Coin opened in 1990 on the premises of the historic “Duilio 48” department store, again a favorite with Florentine shoppers. “Duilio 48,” Florence’s first department store, was founded by Joseph (Giuseppe) Siebzehner in 1902, who advertised then that all articles could be purchased for 48 cents.  Siebzehner was deported with other Florentine Jews on January 29, 1944 to Auschwitz from track 21 of the Santa Maria Novella station, and passed away while en route to the concentration camp.

The Disney store on via Calzaiuoli has already announced its closing, along with Zara in via Calimala near Ponte Vecchio.  The Zara department store at Piazza della Repubblica 1, however, will remain open.  (rosanna cirigliano)

To read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.