In Münster, the two department stores of the “Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof” chain were not open for an hour today. There, the workforce was informed about how things should continue with the two houses with their total of around 200 employees. However, Münster is not affected by the planned closures. As announced by the company in Essen, the 15 department stores in North Rhine-Westphalia will be taken off the market in two stages.
Two-step closures
On June 30, 2023, the houses in Duisburg (Düsseldorfer Straße), Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Leverkusen, Neuss, Paderborn and Siegen will be closed. Bielefeld, Dortmund, Düsseldorf (Schadowstrasse), Essen, Krefeld, Mönchengladbach, Siegburg and Wuppertal will follow on January 31, 2024. 16 branches in NRW will remain in place for the time being. “Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof” has been in crisis for years. Most recently, almost 40 branches were closed two years ago as part of insolvency proceedings; around 5,000 employees lost their jobs.
In an interview with ANTENNE MÜNSTER, trade union secretary Gabi Beuing from ver.di talks about the employees’ reactions:
Lord Mayor Markus Lewe also welcomes the decision to keep both branches in Münster:
