The folkloric space that Livraria Cultura occupied for more than five decades in Conjunto Nacional, on Avenida Paulista, will finally be opened by the new owner: .
The more than 4 thousand square meters now house the new Magalu Gallery, which will be open to the general public from this Tuesday, December 9th, divided into spaces dedicated to other brands in the ecosystem, such as KaBuM!, Época Cosméticos, Netshoes and Estante Virtual.
The Eva Herz Theater, which was also located in , was maintained, but with one change: now it is called “YouTube Theater – Eva Herz Room” and, as the name suggests, it will be managed by the company, with a focus on hosting events and guests daily, especially content creators who have a relationship with brands in the Magalu ecosystem.
In addition, the space will house Apple’s second authorized service center in São Paulo and a unit of the We Coffee coffee shop.
The operation required a specific process for the selection and training of 175 employees in the sales, stock and cash areas who were capable of running the business, which will operate on the same omnichannel model as the group’s stores, with infinite shelves and product pickup points, accompanied by new features such as technical assistance, a gaming space for collective and free use and even the assembly of gaming PCs.
According to Fred Trajano, CEO of Magazine Luiza, Galeria Magalu seeks to further reinforce the characteristic of being multichannel within the company’s ecosystem. “Época Cosméticos was not multichannel, like Netshoes and Estante Virtual. And we needed to make this multichannel work across the entire ecosystem. In addition to the value proposition for the customer, this store materializes our ecosystem”, he added.
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Furthermore, according to the executive, the strategy of bringing together several brands and services in a single space is intended to improve a latent problem in department stores: the flow of people. “The department store concept is a little dated. So we tried to redesign it in a more modern context, keeping what is good about the department store – the meeting, the experience – but solving the problem of people flow.”
For Trajano, YouTube Theater addresses the challenge of flow. “It’s a ‘streamable’ space, that is, it was made for content creators, be it video, podcast, etc. I wanted a theater that had, in addition to traditional plays, a constant programming schedule for content creators to have physical meetings with their audience. And if there’s one thing that the creator brings, it’s a flow of people”, he assessed.
The Culture Bookstore
Livraria Cultura was a recurring theme during the presentation of the space to the press, being classified by executives as a “historic space”.
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“We had the mission of creating something equal to the history of space, but without looking to the past; looking to the future”, said Fred Trajano.
Luiza Trajano, president of the company’s administrative board, reinforced that the company made an active effort to preserve the space. “Everything we could leave, we left. I launched my book here, so there is a whole story. I’m sure we had more affection for Livraria Cultura than we did for ourselves. We are a family that respects the past, but is in the present.”
From the past, the structure remained: the store’s architecture remained the same, as well as the same division of spaces, the same stairs, the same dragon hanging from the ceiling and even the inscriptions “livraria cultura”. However, the place is now full of appliances, electronics, furniture, kitchen items, clothing and sporting goods, beauty products and, to an infinitely lesser extent than before, books, exclusively in the Virtual Bookshelf area.
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At the exit of the Alameda Santos store, Espaço Pina was set up, which will always bring a portion of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo collection. The inaugural exhibition is entitled “Jogo de Cena — works from the collection of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo”. According to Magazine Luiza, over time, other of the Pinacoteca’s 12,000 works may be exhibited in the space.
The unit will operate from 9am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 10am to 6pm, on Sundays. On the opening date, December 9th, the Gallery will welcome the public from 11:30 am. The schedule of actions at the megastore will be published on the Instagram page @galeriamagalu.
