Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is closing 62 of a total of 172 department stores – Karstadt Kiel at Sophienblatt is not affected by the restructuring of the department store group and will remain in place for the time being.
That was a shock for thousands of employees of the department store group, but also for many of the cities affected: The department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, which was already ailing before the Corona crisis, wants to make massive savings and branch closures and has now announced which department stores will close and which will continue to exist for the time being stay. For the time being, because there may be further closures at a later date even after the closure of the 62 department stores. Because the department store group had originally planned to close around 80 instead of “only” 62 department stores.
tagesschau.de: These Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof branches will be closed
If you look at the list of the 62 department stores affected, two things become clear: Karstadt department stores and Galeria Kaufhof in smaller towns are affected. In addition, there will only be a few cities with more than one department store in the future. Large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg and Munich are therefore hit particularly hard, as several department stores are being closed directly in these cities. In Berlin, for example, with a total of six department stores, by far the most branches in a city will be closed. And according to Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, four department stores are affected in Hamburg, including Galeria Kaufhof on Mönckebergstrasse.
Karstadt Kiel will in future be the group’s only department store in all of Schleswig-Holstein
In future, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof will only have one department store in the entire federal state, Karstadt Kiel in downtown Kiel on the Sophienblatt in the Sophienhof Kiel shopping center. As a result, all other four Karstadt department stores in Schleswig-Holstein, Karstadt in Flensburg, Neumünster, Lübeck and in Norderstedt will be closed.
A total of around 6,000 employees are affected by the closures of the 62 department stores. And many small and medium-sized cities are worried about how things will continue in the inner cities after the closure. How can this gap, the loss of a large department store, be closed? A further increasing desertification of the inner cities will probably follow.
Further closures: Karstadt Sports branches are also affected
The subsidiary Karstadt Sports is also affected by the massive savings and restructuring. As was announced at the weekend, 20 of the 30 Karstadt Sports branches are also to be closed nationwide.
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