In late January 2021, the German government announced its intention to support the ailing Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store group with a loan of up to 460 million euros. The German government's decision raises many questions. The WDR program Markt, which was aired on March 10, 2021, addresses the following question: Is this a well-invested subsidy to secure many jobs or a bad deal with an uncertain success? In his statement for WDR-Markt, Prof. Dr. Martin Fassnacht argues that the company had experienced difficulties long before the current crisis. "For several years, the company's sales have been going down. So it is a structural problem and not one triggered by Covid-19," Prof. Fassnacht said. He also added that the company missed the trend of consumers shopping more online.
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