Berlin, Germany
Samsung may have a Galaxy to its name, but in Germany, it’s all about Saturn, one of the largest consumer electronics and appliance retail chains in Europe.
To gear up for the IFA trade show, which launches in Berlin tomorrow, Appliance Retailer paid a visit to this consumer electronics giant to check out the nuts and bolts of the German retail scene.
The store is located on an impressive piece of real estate in the Alexanderplatz district in the centre of Berlin, with an imposing glass façade (through which the Panasonic-branded escalators can just be seen).
Inside, the store is breathtakingly large, with sections devoted to Hi-Fi, televisions, MP3 players and walls of products such as GPS navigation devices. Along with the higher-priced items are rows of fast-moving products such as gift vouchers, batteries and gift cards for “Facebook credits” and The Sims.
The store certainly has a no-frills feel but, despite this, there were plenty of staff on hand to help consumers, and the store was doing a roaring trade, especially considering it was a Tuesday afternoon.
Perhaps a little more unusual was the location of some of the personal care products, which were hanging in the “impulse buy” section next to the cash registers, alongside travel adapters and plastic lunchboxes.
And another nifty fact about Saturn? According to the retailer’s Wikipedia page, its motto is “Geiz ist geil!” which translates to “Stinginess is cool!”.
Saturn uses a very similar A device to Samsung.
The Hi-Fi section inside Saturn.
A look inside the Saturn store in Berlin.