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https://40percentgerman.com/home/2016/10/23/how-to-shop-in-germany-tchibo-cg2m2-f24rh-yjgxy>
"If you’ve spent any time in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands,
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Türkiye, you will have likely
come across a Tchibo store. The popular chain is one of Germany’s most
successful exports, although it’s not immediately clear why, since it’s
ostensibly a high end coffee chain. In an already saturated market, it takes a
lot to stand out from the crowd, but Tchibo’s unique selling point seems to be
its rotating selection of seasonal and often random products. In practice, the
shop changes out its stock of fitness clothing, garden furniture, kitchen aids
or consumer electronics on a weekly basis. Aside from coffee, customers can
never guarantee what they might get, it’s a lucky dip as a business model.
Customers may enter looking for one thing, but could easily leave with a full
lycra bodysuit, a garden trowel, a last-minute holiday and some extra sturdy
window locks.
Based in Hamburg, Tchibo’s distinctive name comes from combining the German
word for coffee bean (Bohnen) with the name of the company’s founder, Carl
Tchilinghiryan. From humble beginnings way back in 1949, the nationwide chain
has grown to be a stalwart of the German high street, where throngs of confused
consumers can be seen leaving stores with a phone contract in hand and an
ironing board under their arm. In its initial iteration, Tchibo wasn’t a
physical store but a mail order company, which may go some way to explaining
the randomness of the products that fill the shelves 74 years later. Walking
into a store in 2023, it certainly feels like the physical manifestation of a
mail order catalogue. In many ways, Tchibo has a lot in common with British
high street curiosity Argos, where customers can browse a full catalogue of
items before choosing what they want. Instead, Tchibo offers one page or
perhaps a section of a catalogue per week. This approach may well be the secret
to success, since rotating the stock on a weekly basis goads consumers into
making rash purchases from a fear of missing out on a bargain.
Opinions on Tchibo tend to vary. There are some who staunchly defend the myriad
of bizarre offerings, swearing blind that they fully intended on buying those
LED candles, or the bottle opener that plays the opening bars of the Weiß-Blau
Marsch. Even more will defend the quality of the products, which in my own
experience can range from excellent to unusable. Generally, the smaller items
work well, but expect complications with the larger, more expensive items. A
few years back my wife bought an exercise bike, ignoring my vocal protests that
the quality was bound to be questionable. After building it, I found that
several vital parts were missing, and despite being sent two more replacement
bikes, none seemed to feature the full complement of components. After the
third attempt, I quietly boxed it up and requested a refund. My wife and I
haven’t spoken of it since."
Via Christoph S, who wrote "Oh yes that explains it very well"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
