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The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

theguardian.com

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Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#21

Post by dsfyu404ed »

ricardobeat wrote: post #15
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?

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

It's just about the shortest, blandest way to make that statement. That it's borderline "vitriol" or considered offensive to say X did Y when that is fact (or as close to fact as you can get with a subjective matter like this, nobody is going to say that communism was good for Eastern Europe) says something about culture here in 2019.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#22

Post by emteycz »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #21
ricardobeat wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

>Your comment feels more like vitriol than fact statement, regardless of being correct. It's just about the shortest, blandest way to make that statement. That it's borderline "vitriol" or considered offensive to say X did Y when that is fact (or as close to fact as you can get with a subjective matter like this, nobody is going to say that communism was good for Eastern Europe) says something about culture here in 2…

> That it's borderline "vitriol" or considered offensive says something about culture here in 2019.

I'm literally writing this comment from mobile while standing in a crowd near anti-communist protest in Prague. I can't really wrap my mind around this culture change.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#23

Post by paublyrne »

ricardobeat wrote: post #15
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?

Several of the shops mentioned in the article are in Kreuzberg which was in the west before the wall came down but now has more in common with other eastern districts like Friererichshain or Neukolln than ones like Charlottenburg in the west. These kind of quirky workshop shops or independent shops are more common in those eastern districts I think than in the west now, which has more of the usual sorts of big high street chains.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#24

Post by gjm11 »

In Cambridge (UK), on an out-of-the-way side street, for many years there was a shop called "Roll On Blank Tape".

I never understood how they could possibly do enough business to stay _in_ business, and always suspected that if you asked in just the right way they might sell you some ... not-blank tapes.

Boringly, the available evidence suggests that actually it's just that the person who ran the shop was really interested in cassette tape and didn't mind not making any money to speak of.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#25

Post by Iv »

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.

In theory it does not make a lot sense. In practice, I am amazed at how much crap most online webshops are.

In a shop I can browse through the wares much easier. I can examine them, look at the size and specs, feel the weight and texture, get ideas.

More often than not, crucial specs of the product I am looking at are not available. Dimensions and weights are often missing, I often can't look at more than 5 or 6 articles at the time.

Webshops are great when you know exactly what you need. They are hell if your need is "4 or 5 buttons that would look good on that fabric"

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#26

Post by crispyambulance »

cirrrrrrus wrote: post #4

I live in Paris and you can find highly specialized shops too. Some shops only sell about three types of fabric, some others will sell only buttons, a certain type of leather or a special type of ink. I love getting in those shops and meeting the people who are really passionate about their visibly small yet huge niche. It always get wonderful once you start looking at the details.

FWIW, there is likely to be a button shop wherever you got enough seamstresses, tailors, dressmakers and fashion industry.

Buttons are really something you have to see and touch in person.

As a child, my mother used to take me with her to "Parker Buttons" in downtown Pittsburgh. I remember plunging my arms elbows-deep into containers of shiny black buttons. Nothing else like it in the world.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#27

Post by teddyh »

I would assume that the decline of specialist shops is strongly correlated with rising rents for storefront properties. But with online shopping on the rise, maybe landlords (outside shopping malls and after some years to pass through the stages of grief) can accept that there just isn’t that much money in rents for storefronts anymore, and that specialist shops thereby can continue to exist.

Of course, the risk is that they will just tear it all down and convert it into lofts, office complexes or something instead, leaving nothing except lofts, office complexes and huge malls.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#28

Post by dreen »

weinzierl wrote: post #10

Several hyper-specialist shops I know in Munich: - balloon shops seem to do really well because we have several here and every major city seems to have one - foam shop for when you need to fix your upholstery - venetian blind store which only sells the vertical kind - Ketten Wild was a chain shop that only sold chains but chains in all forms and sizes - la porcelaine blanche's slogan is "only china, only white" and t…

Please give more information on the elk shop. I need it... for research (and cant find it on google)

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#29

Post by dsfyu404ed »

emteycz wrote: post #22
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your comment feels more like vitriol than fact statement, regardless of being correct. It's just about the shortest, blandest way to make that statement. That it's borderline "vitriol" or considered offensive to say X did Y when that is fact (or as close to fact as you can get with a subjective matter like this, nobody is going to say that communism was good for Eastern Europe) says something about culture here in 2…

> That it's borderline "vitriol" or considered offensive says something about culture here in 2019. I'm literally writing this comment from mobile while standing in a crowd near anti-communist protest in Prague. I can't really wrap my mind around this culture change.

It makes no sense. That's why I'm calling attention to the absurdity of it.

Re: The hyper-specialist shops of Berlin

#30

Post by saalweachter »

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…

What do you mean "a legitimate need"?

Why do people need paint in more than one or two colors? Why do people need multiple styles of clothes, beyond a "summer uniform" and "winter uniform"? Why do people bother to maintain both vi and emacs when only one is necessary?

Most of the time, any tape will do, but sometimes you want the perfect paisley to complement your wrapping paper choice. Since most people don't care most of the time, most stores that sell tape won't have more than one or two kinds, so you go to a specialty retailer to find the unusual stuff for unusual circumstances.

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