>210 years isn’t that old.

If you’re a glacier, that is.

These days, though, it’s a pretty good innings if you’re in business.

Johann Anton Lutz opened his goldsmith’s shop behind the cathedral on the corner of Augustiner Strasse and Grebengasse in 1797.

The next 5 generations – Joseph Lutz, Joseph Anton Lutz, Josef Christian Lutz, Anton Lutz and Margit Lutz – continued the tradition, even opening a second shop in the very flash Vierjahreszeiten Hotel in Wiesbaden in 1904.

I’m not sure when they moved from the original location in Mainz’s Old Town. Certainly post-war -there wasn’t much left standing after 1945 in that bit of Mainz – and the current location is classically ugly build-it-quick 1950’s style.

But the market in Germany is gradually polarising between quality and bling (or its equivalent), with not much breathing space in the middle.

You’ll see a lot of “hybrid buying” going on – shopping at no-frills discounters like Aldi and Lidl (who’ve got around 50% share of the grocery market) for basics and buying smoked salmon at the delicatessen and the best cuts of meat at the local butcher.

Pretty much the same in all market segments.

And that appears to be the story of how Lutz the Jewellers ended up with a broken neon sign and “Everything must go” signs in their windows.

Bit of a shame, really.

18 Mar This entry was published on 18 March, 2007 at 11:54. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.