Apple Begins Hiring for First Retail Store in Berlin

[MacRumors]

As noted by iFun.de [Google translation] and Macerkopf.de [Google translation], Apple has begun posting job listings for a forthcoming retail store in Berlin, the company's first in a city that ranks among the largest in the European Union.

Kurfürstendamm 26 in Berlin with blacked-out ground-floor windows (Source: Berlin Sidewalk)​

The store's location was detailed earlier this year by ifoAppleStore as a nearly century-old theater building at Kurfürstendamm 26 in one of the city's major shopping districts. The entire building, including an addition, measures in at approximately 4,500 square meters or over 48,000 square feet, but it is unclear how much of the building Apple is taking. ifoAppleStore suggested earlier this year that Apple could take a pair of 10,000 square-foot floors for retail space, which would make the store a relatively large flagship location by the company's standards.

The interval between Apple posting job listings and the opening of a new store can vary significantly, but is typically in the range of six months, meaning that the new Berlin store may open sometime toward the middle of 2012.

Article Link: Apple Begins Hiring for First Retail Store in Berlin

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

Why have there been no Apple stores in Berlin?

 

[bushido]

Why have there been no Apple stores in Berlin?

its a bitch to open anything big or get approval from the city

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

Why have there been no Apple stores in Berlin?

It's because the Big Money is in Hamburg, München, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf - not in Berlin.
Berlin has a high unemployment rate and low GDP which is about equal to Birmingham (UK), but with 3.4 times more people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP#Europe.2C_Northern

It simply is not an attractive target for high-price Apple products.
(Ok, Kurfürstendamm also draws many tourists nowadays - because a lot of young people from all over Europe come to Berlin for the cheap beer and all-night clubbing )

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its a bitch to open anything big or get approval from the city

Naa, you got it wrong. It is a bitch to open small things, because then all the bureaucrats and lawyers are let loose to fleece you (I recently had to pay the city because they had the preemptive right to buy and I needed written confirmation that they do not exercise this right. It was quite cheap only about 100 Euro...)

They make ample concessions to the big players - just like building a new airport that generates a lot of noise pollution for a large part of the population.

 

[nick_elt]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

One in Krakow please.

 

[416049]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

One in Krakow please.

(for next year)

Dear Santa,

I would like an Official Apple Store in Budapest and Copenhagen please, I behaved especially good this year and was always helpful to my mommy and daddy.

Your sincerely,
...

 

[bushido]

It's because the Big Money is in Hamburg, München, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf - not in Berlin.
Berlin has a high unemployment rate and low GDP which is about equal to Birmingham (UK), but with 3.4 times more people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_GDP#Europe.2C_Northern

It simply is not an attractive target for high-price Apple products.
(Ok, Kurfürstendamm also draws many tourists nowadays - because a lot of young people from all over Europe come to Berlin for the cheap beer and all-night clubbing )

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Naa, you got it wrong. It is a bitch to open small things, because then all the bureaucrats and lawyers are let loose to fleece you (I recently had to pay the city because they had the preemptive right to buy and I needed written confirmation that they do not exercise this right. It was quite cheap only about 100 Euro...)

They make ample concessions to the big players - just like building a new airport that generates a lot of noise pollution for a large part of the population.

well as long as they dont built it in Kreuzberg, it should be fine

 

[Detlev_73]

It's about d*mned time!

That Gravis store on Ernst-Reuter-Platz is a DUMP!

The offerings at Saturn and Media-Markt are OK.

Wir heißen dir in Berlin willkommen, Apple! Schön dass du da bist!

 

[MikelJohnsan]

Don't make yourself smaller than you are....

Although Berlin isn't up to western Germany in terms of GDP, it's an up and coming city with lots of technology start ups and it's the second most visited city in Europe and also it's second largest.

Good for Berlin! Still strange to see Frankfurt having two (well one within city limits and one just outside of them), with just about 700,000 people living there compared to the 3.6 Million in Berlin! (Okay, one may argue that the Metro area is larger in Frankfurt, and they're also richer, but still).

And yeah, I like to learn lots of useless stuff about random cities!

So, guess more Apple products for Berlin! Yay!

 

[rolfbert]

Although Berlin isn't up to western Germany in terms of GDP, it's an up and coming city with lots of technology start ups and it's the second most visited city in Europe and also it's second largest.

Good for Berlin! Still strange to see Frankfurt having two (well one within city limits and one just outside of them), with just about 700,000 people living there compared to the 3.6 Million in Berlin! (Okay, one may argue that the Metro area is larger in Frankfurt, and they're also richer, but still).

Per capita income in the Frankfurt area (2,2 million people) is twice as high as in Berlin. Also the store in Frankfurt city is tiny.

 

[Christianopolas]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Berlin has about 140.000 students and 12.000 millionares, which isnt great but its not only rich people buying macs its creative and innovative people i doubt any other city in Europe has that much potential at the moment with heaps of internet start ups and always remember when mucking about German bureaucracy having lived in the U.S and Australia it might be annoying sometimes but at some point you will realise that your business is no where as safe as in Germany everythings got its up and downs you cant blame them for not trying to improve this matter.
I cant see why there arent 5 Apple stores already...

 

[MacsRgr8]

Ha, nice!

Another reason to drive fast through Germany and spend some time in this great city!

 

[Winni]

(I recently had to pay the city because they had the preemptive right to buy and I needed written confirmation that they do not exercise this right. It was quite cheap only about 100 Euro...)

That's not exclusive to Berlin - it's common German legal practice. I went through the same thing when I bought a house in Rhineland-Palatine in the beginning of this year. Welcome to the club! ;-)

 

[hgm]

Gravis

Why have there been no Apple stores in Berlin?

I don't agree with another poster in this forum who claims Gravis to be a "dump". Gravis has been here for many years offering an exceptional service including a café lounge area, classroom area, free parking space. (I am not connected with them in any ways, just being a happy user and visitor).
I have seen many an Apple store world wide, and I am not that excited about the slim range of products they're showing. When I visit an Apple (Gravis, whatever) store, I want a wide range of hardware and software products, expert advice, and, yes!, free parking nearby.
Besides the Gravis stores there is no real need for an American-style Apple store, even though I'm sure it will attract the crowds.

 

[416049]

Wir heißen dir in Berlin willkommen, Apple! Schön dass du da bist!

Wir heißen *dich in Berlin willkommen,Apple! Sorry couldn't resist!

 

[kugino]

yet another reason to visit berlin. my favorite city in europe just got even cooler...my friends in berlin are all pretty excited, too.

 

[Oligarch]

Wir heißen dir in Berlin willkommen, Apple! Schön dass du da bist!

Wir heißen *dich in Berlin willkommen,Apple! Sorry couldn't resist!

@maril1111, no trolling intended, just a lesson I would like to pass along: Never, ever, correct a native speaker. In Berlin dialect, it is dir, not dich. End of discussion. In fact, this charming little digression from textbook grammar is the reason why he wrote the sentence.

 

[416049]

@maril1111, no trolling intended, just a lesson I would like to pass along: Never, ever, correct a native speaker. In Berlin dialect, it is dir, not dich. End of discussion. In fact, this charming little digression from textbook grammar is the reason why he wrote the sentence.

Fair enough but in hoch-deutsch dich is the correct version so i am not being wrong either just saying, i didn't get a C2 goethe language certificate for being able to spell my name right!

 

[Detektiv-Pinky]

That's not exclusive to Berlin - it's common German legal practice. I went through the same thing when I bought a house in Rhineland-Palatine in the beginning of this year. Welcome to the club! ;-)

Yes, I know.
Nonetheless, I find it a questionable practice, and I somehow doubt that the big guys need to jump through all these loops. Their cases run by the nice catch phrase of 'Business Development' and this waives all kinds of red tape that burdens normal procedures...

 

[Detlev_73]

Wir heißen *dich in Berlin willkommen,Apple! Sorry couldn't resist!

Ooh, darn verbs governed by the dative.

Thank you!

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I don't agree with another poster in this forum who claims Gravis to be a "dump". Gravis has been here for many years offering an exceptional service including a café lounge area, classroom area, free parking space. (I am not connected with them in any ways, just being a happy user and visitor).
I have seen many an Apple store world wide, and I am not that excited about the slim range of products they're showing. When I visit an Apple (Gravis, whatever) store, I want a wide range of hardware and software products, expert advice, and, yes!, free parking nearby.
Besides the Gravis stores there is no real need for an American-style Apple store, even though I'm sure it will attract the crowds.

"dump" was too strong of a word. Though Gravis is not as attractive as the Apple Store, and does not offer as much of a selection as a "true" Apple Store.

 

[squallkiercosa]

I would like to ask you with all you respect: Is there any difference between the prices from a Local retail store than an 'Official' store?

In Switzerland the price is the same everywhere, so what is the point in building another store?

Sometimes I really dont understand people here...

 

[PC Chopath]

When Retail store comes to Neverland?
Just want to make sure, PeterPan already there.

 

[onigami]

I would like to ask you with all you respect: Is there any difference between the prices from a Local retail store than an 'Official' store?

In Switzerland the price is the same everywhere, so what is the point in building another store?

Sometimes I really dont understand people here...

I don't either. I guess it's that cult-like experience that Apple Stores tend to permeate.

Though, to be fair, they're starting to integrate more with the local architecture (as was the case with Grand Central Terminal, and seems to be the case here with Kurfürstendamm 26), so I suppose that's an improvement over the spaceship cubes that dominated the early stores.

 

[albert3324]

I thought that there were Apple retails in Berlin, but it turns out to be no. Don't know why.

 

[Dowjohnny]

I want one in Mannheim ^^ But i think people there are not quite the main target buyers of apple