Department store – Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof – @shutterstock | Bjoern Wylezich Is the department store a thing of the past? Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof – @shutterstock | Bjoern Wylezich
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is closing 62 of its 172 stores. According to the company's works council, this will result in the loss of 5,317 jobs. A report in manager magazin states that 47 cities are affected by the closures. "In Berlin alone, six of the eleven existing department stores are to be shut down, in Hamburg four, in Munich three, and in Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen, and Nuremberg two stores each." Both Galeria and Karstadt have a history spanning over a century. For a long time, they and other department stores were considered the glittering temples of capitalism. But in recent decades, the appeal of the business model has declined significantly, as a look at the Consumer and Media Analyses (VuMA) of the last 20 years shows. While 38.3 percent of respondents in the 2000 VuMA survey stated that they had shopped at Karstadt in the previous six months, 20 years later that figure had dropped to just 24.2 percent. Back then, only 12.9 percent said they never go to a department store, but today that figure is 38.2 percent.
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is closing 62 of its 172 stores. According to the company's general works council, 5,317 employees will lose their jobs as a result. According to a report in manager magazin, 47 cities are affected by the closures. “In Berlin alone, six of the eleven existing department stores are to be closed, four in Hamburg, three in Munich, two in Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen and Nuremberg.” Both Galeria and Karstadt can look back on a history of over a hundred years. For a long time they and other department stores were considered the glittering temples of capitalism. But in recent decades the attractiveness of the business concept has declined significantly, as a look at the consumption and media analyzes (VuMA) of the last 20 years shows. While 38.3 percent of those surveyed in the VuMA 2000 stated that they had shopped at Karstadt in the last six months, 20 years later the figure is only 24.2 percent. Whereas only 12.9 percent said then that they never go to the department store, today the figure is 38.2 percent.
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