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MediaMarkt and Saturn are cutting up to a thousand jobs in Germany

2021-03-31T18:04:49.490Z


Because customers buy more online, Media-Markt-Saturn wants to cut up to 1,000 jobs and close stores in Germany. Other retailers are also closing their locations - with consequences for city centers.


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Lettering from Media Markt and Saturn: Hundreds of people fear for their jobs

Photo: Armin Weigel / dpa

The employees were informed by letter: Germany's largest electronics retailer Media-Markt-Saturn intends to cut up to 1,000 jobs in the Federal Republic by autumn 2022.

Entire locations are also to be closed: 13 of the 419 stores are expected to be closed, the company's management in Germany announced in a letter to employees.

The pandemic has permanently changed shopping behavior, the management justified the cuts in the branch network.

More and more customers were doing their shopping online.

The share of e-commerce in total sales more than doubled in the current financial year.

This forces the company to adjust the number and size of the stationary stores to the new circumstances.

"Against this background, from the management's point of view, it is unavoidable to close 13 of the currently 419 stores in Germany," says the letter.

After careful analysis, the affected branches could not be operated economically in the long term.

Due to the closings, but also due to a new organizational structure in the stores, "probably up to 1,000 jobs would be lost" by the end of September 2022.

But new jobs would be created elsewhere.

The job cuts in Germany are part of a group-wide savings program that the electronics retailer announced in August last year.

According to earlier information, up to 3,500 jobs could be lost across Europe.

Not only Media-Markt-Saturn wants to thin out its branch network.

The perfumery chain Douglas also wants to close almost every seventh branch in Germany.

With the end of around 60 of the more than 430 branches in the Federal Republic of Germany, the group is also reacting to the ever faster shift of sales to the Internet.

Around 600 of the more than 5,200 Douglas employees in the German branches lose their jobs as a result.

Experts expect other companies to close.

As a result of the pandemic, structural change in retail has accelerated by around seven to eight years, according to a study by the Cologne Institute for Retail Research (IFH).

Online growth and business tasks in the shopping streets are therefore currently taking place with unprecedented dynamism.

"Up to a fifth of stationary stores will have to close their doors by 2023 - that is, up to 80,000 stores," the Cologne-based scientists forecast.

The German Trade Association (HDE) even fears the end of up to 120,000 stores - but still believes in the future of inner cities.

"The model of the inner city is far from obsolete," says HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth.

"But it will look different."

In view of the growing online trade, a new mix of shopping, living, services, trade, culture, leisure and education is necessary in the future.

mmq / dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-03-31

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