And that’s why Bründl is not doing anything for the time being. “We leave the goods in the shops for the next season.” Some of them are temporarily stored in an industrial hall. The order of magnitude: 14,500 pairs of skis and 9,500 pairs of ski boots. “We have goods worth 17 million euros lying around.” In view of these quantities, it is also clear why Bründl does not simply bring them to the Mc Arthur Glen Outlet Center in Salzburg: There is not even that much space in its 3-storey building Outlet center shop.
Speaking of sales. There is no getting around this in the fashion trade. Percentage signs everywhere and the announcement of the big discount battle. Here, too, coats, trousers and jackets that are otherwise left behind go to wholesalers who then sell the goods all over the world. “But even if you buy the goods for a jack-of-all-trades, you can’t use them any further because nothing has been sold anywhere in the world. Not only in the last season, but also in the two previous seasons, ”says Rainer Trefelik, commercial chairman and fashion retailer in Vienna.
An additional problem: The summer goods push in at the supplier’s entrance, while the winter goods lie like lead in the shop. “Usually the producers don’t deliver everything at once, but they do now. Because they also have to empty their warehouse, ”says Trefelik. He himself does not yet know how he will deal with the situation. In fact, you can’t plan anything, after all, the next lockdown is already looming. Trefelik: “If all else fails, we’ll have a charity flea market.”
Warehouse full to the ceiling
Furniture and electronics retailers also have full warehouses and start discount wars. “We are facing the challenge of the products in our stores piling up to the ceiling,” says MediaMarkt sales manager Richard Zweimüller. In the online shop, he simply cannot sell as much as was bought for the 53 stores originally.
Georg Büchner, managing director of the Morawa bookstore, is comparatively relaxed. He didn’t sit on huge piles of leftover tomes. “Just-in-time deliveries are common in our industry,” he says. So orders for the next day. And in the end he was careful when shopping. Incidentally, the online mailing of books has not emptied its branch in Vienna’s Wollzeile. This is because online orders are served from a warehouse and not from the shops.
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