Changes in the city centre Two fashion shops in Bonn to close
Bonn · The corona crisis is also leaving its mark on the city centre of Bonn. The fashion house Etscheid and the Wunderbar are to close. There are other changes, too.
A bench in the green, from which you can let your gaze wander into the distance: This motif can be found on a card that Annette Philips and her team give to their customers as a farewell gift. The women's fashion store Etscheid next to the Theater Contra Kreis on the street Am Hof will close at the end of the year. 166 years of company history come to an end. And there is more news to report from the city centre of Bonn.
"We have been hit by the lockdown in the middle of our main season, when we normally sell our spring fashion. But even before that, because of Corona, we noticed a strong reluctance among our customers, especially among older customers," explains owner Annette Philips. Even now that the fashion store has reopened, significantly fewer customers than usual are coming. "I don't think that shopping with a mask is fun for anyone.“
Philips has run the store for 40 years. She took over from her mother, who in turn took over from her mother. "We've been a family business since the beginning." Now she doesn’t see no any future. "In addition, I'm 70 now." What will happen to the shop premises which belongs to the university after it closes is still unclear.
Also about to close is the Wunderbar on Friedrichstrasse. For ten years Claudia Justen has sold fancy fashion, accessories, gifts and fine stationery there. "The Corona crisis has brought the barrel to overflowing", she explains the reason for the closure. Even before the crisis, she says, it was not an easy business. "We noticed that fewer and fewer Bonner came to the city to shop. We lived on the tourists for 85 percent of our lives."
Justen sees the traffic situation in the city as the main problem. Many customers have complained about the poor accessibility of Bonn's city centre, especially in the run-up to Christmas. In contrast, her shop in Südstadt, "Papier und Buch" at Bonner Talweg 46, will remain open. She plans to offer fashion there in the future. According to Justen, an acquaintance of hers plans to open a tattoo studio in the shop on Friedrichstrasse shortly.
Restaurant business moves to Friedrichstraße
After the lockdown, work is also being carried out on the house on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Kesselgasse, which has been home to Deckers' sports and arms shop since 1903. In 2018 owner Susanne Deckers closed the business and sold the house. The new owner reports that after completion of the work - among other things, the wooden staircase in the building will be replaced by a concrete staircase - a catering business will probably move in. "In my opinion, this would also fit in well with the gastronomy mile on Friedrichstrasse." However, the construction workers have fallen behind schedule due to Corona, so she does not expect the opening to take place for a year.
At the other end of Friedrichstrasse, at the corner of Belderberg/Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz in the former Lufthansa City building, the premises are to be merged with the adjacent discotheque and comprehensively modernised, according to Andreas Hill of Limbach-Immobilien. At the end of the year, Rahm, one of the largest medical supply stores in Germany, is to reopen on an area of around 280 square metres.
According to Hill, something is also happening in the former branch of the Santander Consumer Bank at Bonngasse 29, opposite the Im Stiefel inn: the renovation work has begun there, and a branch of "Think Twice Vintage", an international textile company, will move in. After the end of the lockdown, the Rewe To Go has not opened at all on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Wenceslasgasse. The shop is now empty, the windows are taped up.
(Original text: Lisa Inhoffen / Translation: Mareike Graepel)
