Is the department store going the way of the Dodo Bird in Germany? Once these temples to consumption were places of dreams offering shoppers the best of the best. Those days are long gone. As the retail carnage continues, once mighty shopping temples have fallen silent.
In Berlin, the department store culture slow death is sad to watch. Germany’s two largest chains Karstadt, founded in 1881, and Galeria Kaufhaus, 1889, formed Galeria Karstadt Kaufhaus from a 2018 merger. The two struggling stores fell far due to inconsistent management strategies, asset stripping, covid, bankruptcies and of course, shoppers’ migration to online platforms. After years of struggling, the new owners decided to jettison fifty-two locations by this summer. Let’s hope the current proprietors will invest in updating their remaining eighty-two mouldy locales.
Speaking of July 31st, Berlin’s Galeries Lafayette will permanently close its stylish 9000 square meter Friedrichstrasse location after twenty-years. The French retailer cited changing commercial dynamics for the decision. In this writer’s opinion, the store was in the wrong location anchoring a decaying Zombie Mall.
