To kill some time before my Saturday morning massage appointment, I nipped into the German library to read the papers and was stunned to read that the newly merged Karstadt and Kaufhof department store groups were going to close about one third of their stores throughout Germany - including the two big department stores on Wehrhahn/Schadowstraße, which will close their doors on 31 October.
That means that we've gone from 2 Karstadt stores to zero and from 3 Kaufhof stores to 1.
I remember, as a child, the large department stores in Berlin, such as Hertie. For a child from an area where the largest town now has around 21,000 inhabitants, a department store in Berlin was like entering Ali Baba's den. They offered a glittering cornucopia of goods.
When I moved in 2008, I was in Karstadt every Saturday morning purchasing more items for the new flat. Sadly, however, one by one, the various departments were whittled away, to be replaced by more clothes. The first to go were the pet and gardening departments. They were gradually followed by the camera and printer departments, the curtains and lighting departments, books, pens and stationery.... Slowly, the shop increasingly resembled a clothes warehouse rather than the glittering den of all sorts of wonders - a place where you could get anything you wanted and for a range of prices, too.
At least I could always comfort myself with the fact that Karstadt's haberdashery department still kept going. Now? Heaven knows. Where will I get material to make teddy bears from? Where will I buy fabric for cross-stitching? Embroidery threads? Needles? Cloth and patterns for making clothes - something that I want to start doing again after a very long hiatus.
Shopping is getting ever harder to do. Don't tell me that there is online shopping. I heard a day or two ago that about 75% of all clothes ordered online in the UK is returned. How many don't even bother to return them but just pass them straight on to the charity shop?
Online shopping is nice in an emergency, but no substitute for the real thing, where you can actually see and feel the quality of what you are buying and get invaluable advice from the people working in the shop. These two closures - on one of D'dorf''s main shopping streets - mark a sad end to what was a splendid era of shopping.
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Shocking news.
ReplyDeleteWhat will they do with the buildings?
No idea. I can't imagine anything happening with them for a long time - unless it's to tear them both down to build more luxury flats that no normal person can afford.
ReplyDeleteSad to say, I think you are right about the latter possibility.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with your text.
ReplyDeleteThe same is happening here, the "flag ship" of all Finnish dpt stores, Stockmann, is in financial crisis, and most likely will either close its doors or at least restrict its offering radically. Already now, their offering is more and more concentrated into clothes. Their bookstore "Akateeminen" was sold a couple of years ago, and their first class food department was sold to local Coop, being now "shop in shop".
I know I cannot turn time back nor I can change the rapid global shopping habits development, but it does not help me not to feel sorry for the situation nor feeling absolutely old-fashioned, non-suitable to modern world.
My home town is developing its downtown, building tram line. The whole town centre has been a giant building site for three, four years. People started to avoid the area as moving there was difficult by foot or by bike, and totally rejected for private cars. Now it is half dead, a lot of empty stores and closed windows. A sad view. How they can change it into blooming town again, is a mystery to me.