Ms Schöberl, many Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department stores are closing. The fashion retailer Orsay closed all branches in 2022. The shoe retailer Görtz is insolvent. Are inner cities dying out as shopping miles?
They are not dying out, but many inner cities will no longer be purely shopping miles. In many pedestrian zones we will increasingly see other uses – gastronomy, culture and others apart from pure consumption. In the big cities, however, large parts of the inner city will continue to be dominated by shopping. There are enough customers there with high purchasing power.
Let’s stay with the Galeria case for a moment: Of the current 129 department stores, only 77 should remain. Five years ago there were even 175 houses. What do the closures mean for the attractiveness of the affected inner cities?
For department stores, it takes about five years between a closure and a new opening. You’ve had a hollow tooth in the beautiful city center for five years. This is a disaster for a medium-sized city. The owners of the property and the city have to get together and create temporary solutions, even if you make it nice and put a citizens’ office in it.
What will happen to these areas in the best locations in the long term?
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