Podcast “important today”
Galeria in crisis: The days of department stores are over, and experience shopping is coming in their place
The Galeria logo on the shop window front at the Hauptwache in Frankfurt. The department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof wants to close numerous branches nationwide.
© Boris Roessler / DPA
Last week it was announced that Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is bankrupt again and many branches have to close. And yesterday the online retailer buero.de announced that it wanted to take over 47 locations. But does the classic department store still have a future?
“The customer decided that he no longer wanted to buy there, in sufficient quantities, and Galeria messed that up too, because they had countless opportunities over many years to radically develop their concept. And what they have always done is to optimize”, says Marcus Diekmann in the 399th episode of the podcast “important today”.
The businessman believes it is an exaggeration to say that Galeria Kaufhof is now an anchor for smaller towns and that without the old department stores the towns would die out. For centuries, only the churches have had the right to be considered indispensable.
Diekmann founded the “Dealers help dealers” initiative, where they work on new concepts, such as how to make smaller inner cities attractive again.
Shopping is an experience
“Today, shopping is an experience purchase, which means that the first thing we have to do is bring playgrounds and not just a small sandpit, but real worlds of experience into the city center. Then we have to have a mix of large chains that are attractive, plus small ones create great individual shops. Plus good gastronomy. We only have a well-rounded concept if you round off these three factors with free parking,” says Marcus Diekmann in an interview with “Today’s Important” editor Dimitri Blinski.
The Holy Sundays
Sunday openings are another building block for successfully surviving against online trading. Marcus Diekmann says: “We have to open on Sundays and I understand all the good reasons that speak against it, but if people don’t have time during the week and we see that the number of hits on online on Sundays is gigantic, then I would like to invite them. I would rather close on Mondays and be allowed to open on Sundays.”
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