MILAN — What started as peaceful, student-led protests over the rising cost of living, inflation and access to education, were marred by widespread unrest in downtown Milan as several hundred hooded individuals joined and took advantage of the weekend demonstrations to loot shops and businesses.
Sportswear chains, supermarkets and boutiques across the city were targeted, particularly in high-traffic shopping areas including Duomo and San Babila Squares, thoroughfares Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Torino and the Brera district.
Law enforcement was deployed to contain the upheaval, and the government is holding public security summits on Monday to handle future responses.
Similar incidents occurred over the weekend in other Italian cities, including Turin and Bologna, as well as in Paris.
Already after the first day of protests on Saturday, the general secretary of Confcommercio Milano Marco Barbieri estimated that the damage to stores and commercial activities in Milan reached more than 500,000 euros, between structural damages and missed sales due to the early closing of businesses.
Barbieri later said that the estimate more than doubled after the new episodes on Sunday.
On Monday morning, Carlo Sangalli, president of the Confcommercio-Imprese per l’Italia national confederation of enterprises and professional activities, joined Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala in visiting some of the retailers that were ravaged during the unrest, including the Decathlon flagship.
“The right to protest is sacrosanct, but it must be exercised within the framework of civil rules,” said Sangalli. “Wreaking havoc on a city out of pure vandalism is intolerable. As Confcommercio, we are taking action to ensure that businesses that have suffered damage are compensated and can return to their normal activity as quickly as possible.”
Sala said: “The actions and scenes we witnessed Saturday and Sunday, targeting law enforcement and public spaces and businesses, are unacceptable and unjustifiable. This morning… I visited several businesses that were devastated over the weekend. I met with shopkeepers and many people still shaken by what happened. I expressed my solidarity and support to all of them… Once again, Milan is rolling up its sleeves and, although wounded, has gone back to work,” he offered.
The mayor warned about the possibility that new uproars would erupt in the coming weeks.
Among the businesses targeted in the area around San Babila Square, a Foot Locker store was broken into and shoes and other merchandise stolen, as footage widely circulated on social media shows. A similar intrusion attempt happened at the sneaker retailer’s Turin store on Via Roma.
The company told WWD that it is “closely monitoring the situation following the incidents in France and Italy. We remain in constant contact with our local teams to assess the impact of these events and determine the most appropriate measures for each affected location.”
“The safety of our employees and customers remains our top priority. We are providing our teams with all the support they need and taking every necessary precaution to ensure a safe environment for everyone,” Foot Locker said. “We are adapting our operations as the situation evolves, with the aim of resuming normal business as soon as conditions allow. We remain committed to offering our customers a welcoming and safe shopping experience.”
French sporting goods retail chain Decathlon, located in the Cairoli area overlooking the Castello Sforzesco, was the target of similar violent attacks, as looters smashed the storefront windows and stole sporting equipment and several bicycles.
Customers and staff were inside the store at the time of one of the attacks, but no injuries were reported, the company said.
“In recent hours, through strong team cohesion and with the support of colleagues from other locations, we have been working to restore conditions to welcome sports enthusiasts once again. Subsequently, there will be a comprehensive assessment of damages and stolen merchandise,” said Nicoletta La Torre, external and corporate communication manager for Decathlon Italia.
Lootings on Via Torino, a stone’s throw from the Duomo Cathedral, targeted supermarket Carrefour and the Champion store, among others. The latter was broken into, and merchandise was stolen on Sunday.
In an internal memo reviewed by WWD, Lorenzo Moretti, president of Champion Europe, Middle East and Africa, addressed employees, thanking store manager Marco Montaspro for showing “extraordinary courage and presence of mind, directing his team to safety on the upper floor while initially attempting to protect the store himself. Faced with the sheer number of people forcing their way in, he rightly recognized that this was impossible.”
“No Store, no product, no amount of money is worth the safety or well-being of a single member of our team. Ever. We can replace broken windows, damaged stores and stolen merchandise. We cannot replace our people,” he wrote.
Luxury retailers were mostly spared by looters, with a few exceptions including the Dries Van Noten beauty and accessories boutique on Via Brera, which on Monday still had shattered windows.
On luxury shopping street Via Montenapoleone, some brands decided on early afternoon closures on Monday, including Hermès and Chanel.
In the Brera district, attempts at looting affected several stores, including Stüssy and Mario Luca Giusti, whose windows featured spider cracks on Monday.
The Arc’teryx boutique on Corso Garibaldi was the most widely impacted and was boarded up with plywood panels to prevent break-ins on Monday.
“Our Milan store was affected by the incidents over the weekend and will reopen only when it’s appropriate to do so. All of our team members are safe,” the company told WWD. “The well-being of our employees and customers is our first priority. We are working closely with local authorities.”
Also in the Brera district, standing just few steps away from the ravaged Arc’teryx store, Birkenstock’s stand-alone flagship is a go-to address, where customers have regularly queued up since its opening last year.
Reached for comments on Monday, Birkenstock said “we kept the store open as the protests last Saturday were concentrated in the area around the Duomo. On Sunday, we decided to close our store and send our whole team home as a precautionary measure.”
“We are closely monitoring the developments at all our retail locations in the affected regions of France and Italy,” said the company. “We are in close contact with all our teams at the stores and are continuously assessing the situation. The safety of our employees and customers is our top priority.”
Federdistribuzione, the country’s association representing retailers across categories, expressed its solidarity with targeted businesses, describing what occurred as “acts of vandalism.”
“Incidents that harm businesses, workers and citizens cannot be justified in any way. Modern retail companies play an essential role in providing services and employment to millions of people every day, and it is vital that they be able to operate in safe conditions, with respect for work and the rules of civil society,” the association said.