The "Fallen" Karstadt

Across Germany, there's a couple of major department stores....but the one that typically appears in most every major German city....is Karstadt.  There are roughly eighty of these stores across Germany.  The department store has been around since 1881.  The company even includes the KaDeWe store in Berlin....which is a one-of-a-kind shop where just about everything  you could imagine....is sold.  The Berlin KaDeWe store is featured in the picture There are 25,000 employees to the entire shop chain.

Karstadt did great business until the late 1990s.  Somewhere along the last ten years.....they've hit a marginal success rate.  A number of their operations have shut down, and they've gone through six bosses over the past decade....in an attempt to rebuild the success formula to the department store chain.

The latest boss?  The announcement from late yesterday is that a fashion designer boss from Sweden is coming in to manage the company and find some way out of the current trend situation.  The company critics tended to blame the last boss for being a non-German and having no German language ability (he was a Brit).  It's hard to say if the critics are right about the boss having to be a German or requiring the language to effectively run the operation. And yes.....this Swedish gal is rumored to be a non-German speaker as well.

I have shopped at Karstadt....both in Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden.  I've also been to the KaDeWe store in Berlin.  An American would describe the store as a upscale Pennys....with a wide choice of home decoration items, nice gift ideas, upscale clothing options, and a fine choice of shoes.  Cheap?  Well....no.  If you want discount prices or you work with a limited budget.....you don't shop at Karstadt....plain and simple.

The selling points of the store?  Karstadt is unique.

They have a real chocolate department where fancy chocolates are sold....the type that Grandma would only offer you during the holiday season and in very limited quantities.

They have a fine pen department, where a 250 Euro ($325) pen can be found from France, or a fancy Swiss designer pen for 150 Euro ($200).

They have a decent wine department, where a fine bottle of Italian wine can be bought for 100 Euro ($125).

They offer a unique crystal and dining ware department, where you could buy a fancy coffee set for 225 Euro ($300).

People with a real income....shop at Karstadt.  People with a limited budget....simply browse and walk out empty handed.  There are fewer Germans with a real income....so more window shop, than occupy themselves with five-minute decisions over a eighty Euro fine pen and pencil set.

A dying operation?  No.  But Karstadt has a unique problem in that competition has been wedged up against them.  They need a theme....a couple of unique celebrity types (promi-characters), who try more to portray themselves in a comfy home environment with Karstadt items....without advertising a sale or discounted prices.  They aren't discount, and shouldn't ever lower themselves into that standard of business.

So when you hear about Karstadt, the new operations boss, and wonder what the whole thing is about.....you will identify it as an act of desperation by a "fallen" company in search of a mythical change.  If there ever was a sword-in-the-stone moment, or some damsel-to-be-rescued moment, this is it.....they need that kind of rescue.