Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
Where do you usually shop? Put these in order from 1 (most frequent) to 5 (least frequent).

1. ____________________________ a. at a shopping centre

2. ____________________________ b. in independent shops
3. ____________________________ c. online
4. ____________________________ d. in second-hand/vintage shops
5. ____________________________ e. on the high street

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to
help you.

gentrification liquorice dispatch miniature confectionery

blossom expenses sceptical counter demand

1. When companies ___________________________ goods, they send them to customers. (para 1)

2. A ___________________________ item is a very small example of something that is usually much larger.
(para 2)
3. ___________________________ is the amount of a product or service that people want. (para 4)
4. A ___________________________ is a long flat surface where customers are served in a shop or a bank.
(para 5)
5. ___________________________ is when an area of a city where poor people live becomes an area where
middle-class people live, as they buy the houses and repair them. (para 7)
6. A business’s ___________________________ is the amount of money that it spends. (para 7)
7. ___________________________ is a black sweet with a strong flavour. (para 8)
8. If areas of a city ___________________________, they develop and become more successful. (para 8)
9. A ___________________________ person has doubts about something that other people think is true or right.
(para 10)
10. ___________________________ is a general term for sweet foods such as sweets and chocolates. (para 10)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. What is special about Antstore?
2. When did Antstore start?
3. How long has Bernd Moser been selling and repairing typewriters?
4. What does Paul Knopf sell?
5. What percentage of Kadó’s sales take place online?
6. What percentage of Klebeland’s sales take place online?
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NEWS LESSONS / Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? / Upper intermediate
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Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Are the hyper-specialist shops of
Berlin the future of retail?
Philip Oltermann
29 April, 2019
1 On the first floor of a building in Berlin, four
workers are carefully placing queen ants into test
tubes in order to dispatch them across Europe.
This is Antstore, the world’s first specialist
ant shop, a business with around two dozen
employees and a full-time social-media manager.
2 It is just one of the surprisingly large number
of shops in Berlin that sell only one thing, from
insects, salty sweets and sticky tape to miniature
string instruments. With online retail sales
changing the world’s high streets, many people
wonder if this kind of specialization could be a
model for the high street of the future.
3 Martin Sebesta started Antstore in 2003. He was
frustrated that his city’s pet shops were unable to
tell him how to build his own ant farm. He rented
a small shop from which he worked part time to
build and sell his own ant farms. The majority of
Antstore’s sales take place via the company’s
website, but Sebesta believes the shop itself is
still key to its success.
4 Bernd Moser’s shop in Kreuzberg has, for over
a quarter of a century, only sold and repaired
typewriters. Although already many years over
retirement age, Moser unlocks his shop from 11
am until 4 pm during the working week – mainly
because demand is still high. After a 60-year
career as an office machine mechanic, Moser
owns boxes full of spare parts and still has
instruction manuals in his head. “It’s easy to take
a typewriter apart,” he says, “but I also know how
to put them back together again.”
5 A hundred metres around the corner is Paul Knopf,
a large shop with two shop fronts and several
storage units. The shop has only sold one thing
over its counter for 32 years: buttons, millions of
them. “I don’t know exactly how many buttons
there are in this building in total,” says Knopf, “but I
know there are more than I can sell before I die.”
6 A short walk from there, Harald Truetsch has,
for almost ten years, sold only miniature string
instruments including ukuleles made of wood
or metal, mandolins and tiny bass guitars. “Big
music shops often think the ukulele is just a guitar
for children,” says Truetsch.
© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
NEWS LESSONS / Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? / Upper intermediate
7 Knopf, Moser and Truetsch have all survived the
gentrification of their neighbourhoods. They run
efficient operations with low expenses – Knopf
has three employees, while the other two are
one-man shows. Germany’s strict laws on shop
opening hours have allowed them to work solo:
many specialists are closed not just on Sundays
but Mondays, too.
8 People usually like specialist shops because
they add character to an area. Since Ilse Böge
opened Kadó, Germany’s first specialist liquorice
store, 20 years ago, she has seen her local
area blossom. The network of tree-lined cobbled
streets has also attracted property investors
from around the world, and some of the shop’s
neighbours closed down when their rents
suddenly doubled. “We made this area attractive.
Now we could be punished for it,” worries Böge.
9 Katrin Lompscher, Berlin’s Die Linke (The
Left) party senator for housing, has suggested
extending the protection measures, which
currently protect poor residents in certain parts of
the city from being forced out by aggressive rent
increases, to also apply to local shops. But Böge
is in two minds.
10 On the one hand, she says, protection for shops
would give small-business owners stability to
plan their future. But she is sceptical: “What does
the state know about how retail will develop in
the next ten years? You would end up creating
a parallel business system.” Instead, Böge and
her husband, Frank, are planning for a future
without shops. As much as 35% of the shop’s
sales now take place online, and Kadó’s sticky
confectionery is for sale in most of Berlin’s
independent cinemas.
11 Perhaps Berlin’s first liquorice specialist could
take the same route as Mohamad Ghouneim’s
Klebeland. Ghouneim ran the city’s leading
sticky-tape specialist from a store until rent
increases forced him out of the premises. Instead
of shutting up shop, Ghouneim moved, and now
80% of his business comes from online sales and
regular industrial clients. “People who try to sell
you everything are struggling more and more,” he
says. “Specialists like us are the future.”
© Guardian News and Media 2019
First published in The Guardian, 29/04/19
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Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. All the specialist businesses mentioned in the article are one-man shows.
2. Martin Sebesta started Antstore because he was frustrated by the lack of information he was able to get from
pet shops.
3. Bernd Moser has hundreds of instruction manuals in his shop.
4. Specialist shops can help to make an area attractive, but this can increase rents.
5. Mohamad Ghouneim shut down his business when his rent was increased.
6. Kadó is in an attractive area of the city.

5 Find the word

Find the following words and phrases in the text.

1. a noun meaning a set of twelve things or people (para 1)

2. a noun meaning the sale of products to the public for their own use (para 2)
3. a verb meaning think about something because you want to know more details about it (para 2)
4. a three-word phrase meaning a business activity involving just one person (para 7)
5. an adjective used to describe streets and meaning covered in round stones (para 8)
6. a noun meaning people who live in a particular place (para 9)
7. a four-word verb phrase meaning not be certain about something (para 9)
8. a three-word verb phrase meaning close a business permanently (para 11)

6 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from
the text.

1. retail a. hours
2. retirement b. increase
3. opening c. streets
4. cobbled d. tape
5. rent e. sales
6. sticky f. age
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NEWS LESSONS / Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? / Upper intermediate
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Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
7 Word-building
Complete the table using words from the text.

verb noun
1. specialize (person)
2. invest (person)
3. store
5. gentrify
6. own (person)
6. retire

8 Discussion
Discuss the statements.

• It is much better to buy things from a small, specialist shop.

• Shopping online is so much easier and less time-consuming.

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NEWS LESSONS / Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? / Upper intermediate
CA O
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Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
KEY

2 Key words 5 Find the word

1. dispatch 1. dozen
2. miniature 2. retail
3. demand 3. wonder
4. counter 4. one-man show
5. gentrification 5. cobbled
6. expenses 6. residents
7. liquorice 7. be in two minds
8. blossom 8. shut up shop
9. sceptical
10. confectionery
6 Two-word expressions

3 Find the information 1. e

2. f
1. It is the world’s first specialist ant shop. 3. a
2. 2003 4. c
3. for over 25 years 5. b
4. buttons 6. d
5. as much as 35%
6. 80%
7 Word-building

4 Comprehension check 1. specialist

2. investor
1. F 3. store / storage
2. T 4. gentrification
3. F 5. owner
4. T 6. retirement
5. F
6. T
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NEWS LESSONS / Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? / Upper intermediate
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