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The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

theguardian.com

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Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#11

Post by dvh »

emteycz wrote: post #8

Yeah, the communists have destroyed this in the eastern part of Europe nearly perfectly EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted for a factual, accepted, well researched and well known statement?

Coming from commie part of Europe I feel ya. I've recently saw documentary about Japanese family that makes same product for third generation, this would not be possible here as communists didn't allowed private business, people get separated from soil during collectivization and the link got broken. It will take many years to get restored, if ever...

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#13

Post by Myrmornis »

Surely the obvious question is: is the high street shop really a justified expense? Surely all the sales are online? The more specialized the shop, the less one can hope to fulfill ones sales volume from people in physical cruising distance. The article doesn’t seem to address this, except for acknowledging that most sales are online.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#14

Post by elorant »

arethuza wrote: post #6

For many many years there was a shop on Victoria street in Edinburgh that appeared to sell nothing but brooms and large balls of string - it was even mentioned in Complicity by Iain Banks. Here are some pics of it: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_MY_P_S/0_my_photographs_shops_... Edit: Sad to say that I passed that shop for many years going to uni in the Grassmarket (both as a student and working there) and never went…

Wow this web site is like we're back in 1996. Love it. Reminded me how simple was the web back then.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#15

Post by ricardobeat »

emteycz wrote: post #8

Yeah, the communists have destroyed this in the eastern part of Europe nearly perfectly EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted for a factual, accepted, well researched and well known statement?

Wording. Your comment feels more like vitriol than fact statement, regardless of being correct.

It’s an interesting point. Is there a perceptible difference for Berliners between E/W shop types?

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#16

Post by simongray »

emteycz wrote: post #8

Yeah, the communists have destroyed this in the eastern part of Europe nearly perfectly EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted for a factual, accepted, well researched and well known statement?

It doesn't seem that factual, accepted and well-researched when this article directly contradicts your statement:

> In such a skewed retail landscape, many small shops found they could compete by specialising in goods neglected by generalist department stores, especially since retail space was cheap and in plentiful supply behind the Iron Curtain.

So while you may be right, you may also be wrong. Maybe it's not as black&white as you make it out to be.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#17

Post by ljcn »

Myrmornis wrote: post #13

Surely the obvious question is: is the high street shop really a justified expense? Surely all the sales are online? The more specialized the shop, the less one can hope to fulfill ones sales volume from people in physical cruising distance. The article doesn’t seem to address this, except for acknowledging that most sales are online.

The answer is probably that shop owners would rather work in a shop that satisfies online orders than in a warehouse.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#18

Post by bluetomcat »

Is anyone else failing to see a legitimate need for sticky tape in tens of different colours? What about the shopping experience of the future, when such shops are destined to be the "future of retail"? Suddenly you are now spending an hour choosing between balloons of different shapes and colours or the perfectly matching button for your shirt. It's an illusion of choice, fueling pointless production of variations of the same thing and targeting your attention and time.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#19

Post by jameskegel »

bluetomcat wrote: post #18

Is anyone else failing to see a legitimate need for sticky tape in tens of different colours? What about the shopping experience of the future, when such shops are destined to be the "future of retail"? Suddenly you are now spending an hour choosing between balloons of different shapes and colours or the perfectly matching button for your shirt. It's an illusion of choice, fueling pointless production of variations o…

I’d imagine this line of thinking is what Apple hopes for, people burdened with the luxury of choice who just want someone to tell them what they want.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#20

Post by emteycz »

simongray wrote: post #16
emteycz wrote: post #8

Yeah, the communists have destroyed this in the eastern part of Europe nearly perfectly EDIT: Why am I getting downvoted for a factual, accepted, well researched and well known statement?

It doesn't seem that factual, accepted and well-researched when this article directly contradicts your statement: > In such a skewed retail landscape, many small shops found they could compete by specialising in goods neglected by generalist department stores, especially since retail space was cheap and in plentiful supply behind the Iron Curtain. So while you may be right, you may also be wrong. Maybe it's not as bl…

I think you are misunderstanding the article. Going to the east, these specialised shops directed by the communists, put in place of previous, private ones, have in no way anything to do with the small family businesses you're trying to compare them with. They often literally shot the whole owner family. Everything of this is documented and taught in primary schools all around eastern Europe.

All the small businesses in Prague city centre were destroyed, today it's dominated by various minishops with Russian matrioshkas and other scam shit and Vietnamese (they rent it, not their fault) marketplaces selling fake weed and overpriced chips, drinks and cola, and of course by scam exchange places. This used to be space full of small coffee shops, restaurants, specialised family businesses etc in the 1920's. My home city Hradec Kralove (100k citizens) has nearly completely empty wider city centre - since the revolution, no one even wants to do business there. All small business owners were killed or killed by proxy (uranium mines, all of this uranium was then "given" to/taken by the Russians for free), their property confiscated and never recovered (to whom anyways).

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