Thirty percent off Montblanc, forty percent off Lamy – "how cool," says a young woman standing in front of the announcement board with the discounted product groups. "Everything has to go" – the garish advertising posters in the shop windows on the Zeil cannot be overlooked: The last weeks of sales have begun in the former Karstadt department store of the Galeria Group. At the end of June, the fashion chain Aachener will take over the house on July 1 - initially with a contract until the end of 2025.
Petra Kirchhoff
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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But now the Gordon Brothers are in charge – that's the name of the British service provider specializing in the sale of goods. He not only sells what is still there, but has also brought new goods, such as mountains of salad spinners, which are advertised on the ground floor at a discount of thirty percent.
Branded goods with discounts
Goods are still available on all floors and significantly reduced – including those from brand manufacturers such as Le Creuset in the kitchen department or Bogner in the sports department, if you can still speak of departments at all. There is a lot of confusion on all floors. Walking through the house, it is difficult to get an overview, and it becomes clear once again what a monster, how huge and convoluted the property is. Some of the shelves have already been completely cleared, and naked dolls lie in a pile in a dark corner.
A saleswoman who tried to bring some order to her department in the morning, as she says, capitulates in the afternoon with a heavy sigh. She first puts a Germany scarf around the neck of a naked doll. She hasn't lost her sense of humor yet, she says. As difficult as the corpse-scavenging must be for the workforce to watch, at least it continues.
Friedrich-Wilhelm Göbel, managing director of the Aachener fashion chain, wants to make a job offer to all 220 employees and also hire more employees. Katayun Strack, who has been chairwoman of the works council at the department store for almost three years, also wants to continue and finds words of appreciation for her new boss. "Göbel knows what he's talking about," she says. He appreciates the department store and also wants to pay salaries at the previous level. This is already a "good start", even if the workforce would like to see a return to the collective bargaining agreement. About 15 percent of Galeria employees are below the Hessian retail tariff, which is currently being negotiated.
In the future, smaller space, different assortment
At the beginning of September, Göbel plans to open its "Aachen Department Store" on the Zeil, with less space – the floors above the neighbouring Primark store will no longer be occupied – and a different product range. Large electrical items and mattresses, for example, will no longer be available in the future, nor will there be cheap fashion. According to Göbel's announcement, the Asian market will remain in the basement. A new operator is being sought for the food department. Here, too, the shelves are emptying in these weeks.