Hey! Going to Europe is exciting and fun, but I am sure for most ladies, they would also like to shop too while in Europe! So today we are going to look at The Mall in Florence. The Mall is the biggest outlet in the Florence area, with good selection of brands including Prada, Gucci, Michael Kors, Burberry, and much more!
I wasn’t able to take too many photos because I was too busy shopping around so I just left it for hubby to take a few photos but I can definitely tell you a few pricing and what kinda of products they carried.
The Mall
Address: Via Europa 8 50066 Leccio Reggello (FI)
Hours: Monday – Sunday 10.00 – 19.00
Website: The Mall Official Website
How to get there
The fastest and easiest way to get to The Mall is definitely the shuttle bus. We took the earliest bus to The Mall, which departs at 08:50. It is recommended to get to the Mall earlier since the stores may not restock during the day, so you will get the best selection if you arrive early! The bus station was BUSITALIA/SITA bus station, which was just a short walk from the central Florence train station Santa Maria Novella. It costed 13 euro per ticket for the round trip. It took roughly 1 hour to get to there. The bus was pretty comfortable, I fall asleep and before your know it, we are there!
Stores at The Mall
See the link below for the full list of stores at the mall. Note that the Prada store and Moncler are not on the list since officially they are not part of The Mall, but they are actually only side by side each other and less than 1 minute walk from the bus station!
Full list of store in The Mall
Prada Store
The first store that appear in front of my eyes of course it’s Prada! I cannot tell you how excited I was to see what’s in the store!
Prada technically is not part of The Mall, thus you won’t find it on The Mall’s website. But it is just located outside The Mall, and you won’t miss it since there is always a lineup in the morning before it opens!
We got there 15 minutes before the store opens, so we just wait in line, when the store finally opens at 10am, everyone rushed in to the nearest counter to see if they can find their favourite item!
The Prada store uses a ticket numbering system, how it works is like this:
- All guests are given a number when they walk into the store
- After you select the item you want to purchase, you ask the staff if they have it in stock
- The staff will check on their handheld device for the stock
- If they have a new item in the back, they will get your number and enter it into the system
- When you are done shopping, just line up at the cashier, give them your number, and they will bring out all your favourite items brand new!
The number system actually works great, no need to carry the item you want to purchase around the store, and makes it easier for everyone to keep track.
The most popular sections were definitely the purse and the wallet sections. As you can see from the photo in the top right, there were not too much purses left even though the store has only been opened for less than half an hour!
So here is the most important question you must all be itching to ask, how is the outlet price compared to the local prices?
Here is a rough price list of the Prada items from The Mall Outlet (as of Sep 2016):
- Purses – around 900 EUR
- Wallets – around 250 – 300 EUR
- Card case – around 80 EUR
- Sunglasses
- Shoes
- Clothing
These represent significant mark down versus the price here in Toronto, Canada! Just for comparison, Prada store in Toronto sells the same purse $2890 CAD + tax, which translates to over 2000 EUR. That means the outlet sells the same item at more than half the price!
I was very happy that I actually found a classic in black! My purse is the largest galleria bag with double zippers. The wallet was a bonus, I wasn’t expecting to find a matching set. Even better, this is a wallet on chain (with removable chain) that will fit my iphone 6s plus! Then there’s my Gucci sunglasses!
Gucci Store
Then my next target was Gucci, there were tons of purses, scarfs, clothes, shoes and sunglasses. I am not a big fan of Gucci, but I did want a pair of sun glasses. Compared with the Prada store, Gucci is not as crowded, but the selection is not as diverse as Prada’s.
Other stores in the Mall
The Mall is an outdoor shopping mall, beside the mega stores (i.e. Gucci/Prada), the other stores are located outside. It was a perfect weather day and definitely enjoyable to shop under the Tuscany Sun!
The other stores were not as exciting as Prada/Gucci as the selection are similar to the one we found in North America. Thus after strolling along for a while and checking up some of the stores, we can’t wait to go the the next highlight attraction of The Mall.
Dining at the Gucci Cafe
This is a cafeteria style restaurant with different food counter, including a pizza/panini bar, hot food bar, and dessert/bakery bar.
Look at all these beautiful food! They are not only good looking, they were delicious! They had pasta, pizza, sandwiches, and lots of deserts.
Tax Refund at the Mall
On top on the big discount, all tourist can also get 12.5% tax refund. How it works is like this:
- When you make the purchase, tell the cashier you want to get tax refund
- Fill in the tax refund form and show the cashier your passport
- After purchasing, go the the tax refund office (located conveniently outside the bus station in The Mall)
- The tax refund office will process the paper work and provide the refund in tax
- When you are departing EURO zone (the last airport before flying back to your home), go to the custom office and get the tax refund form stamped
- Mail the tax refund form before leaving Europe
Overall the tax refund is very easy and does not take too long.
There it is the guide to The Mall! Please feel free to send me a message if you have any question about The Mall and we would be more than happy to help! Hope you will have a good trip there too!
How are you enjoying your fall season? It’s almost time to think about Christmas and maybe get a little gift for yourself, hope this blog help you out a little bit =)
Check out my Instagram Mizzmok for more photos!
That looks like a place you can splurge on. And the discount for tourists sounds really exciting.
Yes! I would love to visit this outlet again!
The number system in Prada sounds so fascinating and interesting and making the shopping experience even better.The mall does have some awesome food options to offer it seems.The information about the VAT return is really helpful .
It was a fantastic experience and with the VAT return, there’s some extra money you can spend 😉
We’ll be going to Florence in a few weeks and I think I just found out what we’re doing one of the days we’re there! This looks heavenly! I’m sure I’ll leave broke AF, but it’ll be worth it.
oh wow! have fun! I would really recommend this outlet mall for you! I was really happy with my shopping 😀
Awesome this definitely looks great. Thanks for sharing every details and whereabouts of this place .Lets go shopping.
Discount for tourist..that makes me wonder what the shopaholic rebecca would do here..perhaps buy the whole shop. Well, I myself won’t mind picking a few lovely pieces
Looks like a great place to shop. Thanks for sharing so many details.
I love outlets! Especially when you actually can get a significant discount. Here in Australia and back home in Estonia, outlets aren’t the best unfortunately. Everything is still quite expensive and the selection is not the best. This mall seems like an awesome place though! Loving the ticketing system too. I think it might motivate people to buy more too, as they don’t realize how much stuff they have picked up once they get it. Clever selling idea!
This seems like a dangerous place! I get into trouble here in the States in outlet malls. I saw Gucci and Prada, any other stores that they feature?
Oh ya for sure it’s a very dangerous place, they have so many brands like Burberry, Ferragamo, YSL… tons to see and temptation!