“Die Mitte” – Shopping on Alexanderplatz

Since Tuesday night, 00:01 am, Berlin now has one more shopping centre. “Die Mitte” opened its doors, accompanied by an enormous array of policemen, on the Alexanderplatz. The electrical chain “Saturn” attracted customers by many bargains and long before the doors were first opened hundreds of people were queuing in front of the building. They had left their Unterkunft Berlin very early in order to be the first in line.
That might evoke bad memories of September 2007 when the biggest Media Market in the world was opened. There, there had been a true shopping fight! 15 people had been injured at the opening of the Berlin shopping centre “Alexa” by the crowd in front of the electronic store.
In order to avoid this, the fences were arranged more strategically as well as many security guards and policemen.
To be on the safe side the Red Cross and emergency ambulance were available on Alexanderplatz. Moreover the crowd of bargain hunters were directed to the entry by the adjustment of the fences.
Around 20 minutes before the grand opening one member of staff opened the main entry, which had been cleared a few minutes before. But people have learned from the accident in 2007. Everything passed off calmly; customers waited patiently until they were able to enter the building- even when the fenced had been removed.
Besides “Saturn”, 9 other stores had been opened on the same night, for example Esprit, New Yorker, Modeboutiquen Steilmann and Promod, to mention a few.
“Saturn” has over 9000m2 of floor space and three floors of products for consumer electronics, domestic appliances, media, photo and accessories. Because of the fact that they wanted everything to go off without a hitch, “Saturn” bolstered the number of its staff up to 200.
But there is also some criticism besides all euphoria of the new shopping mall: businessmen were bemoaning the absence of parking areas. There are no direct car parks which is obviously not ideal. However Alexanderplatz is situated very centrally and therefore is easily accessed by using public transport.
So, the habitants of Germany’s capital have one more place where they can spend their money and tourists have another drop-in centre to go shopping. Maybe “Die Mitte” will be a real hit with the tourists…
If you are interested in a trip to the new shopping centre, but are not living in Berlin or proximity, just look out for a cheap Ferienwohnung in Berlin and enjoy a few days in the capital.