DIY store opening creates traffic jam
Drivers that have taken the road that connect Tirana to Durr쳠on the 30th of October have reported massive traffic jams at the first segments of the road, until the main axis of the “highway” crossed an outlet to reach the so called “Bridge of Kam캢, where a new Do-It-Yourself (DIY) store opened on that day. Whether the success of the first day of the public existence of the store opened by the German company Praktiker Group was related to heavy advertising or to the thirst of the Albanian market for more affordable home-improvement solutions will remain to be seen. Praktiker boasts of having 340 stores in Germany and 104 out of the homeland of the group, mainly in Eastern European countries and in Turkey.
Large-scale advertisement
Weeks prior to the opening of the Praktiker store near Tirana, the capital of Albania, large-scale advertisement prepared the public to the advent of the new store. Billboards, catalogue distribution on the door-paths, leaflet distribution in the streets, media publicity – all combined to prepare the event. Praktiker issued weeks ahead of the opening of the store a first catalogue in which the company listed a set of products and a series of advantageous to mid prices available from the 30th of October to the 12th of November. The marketing and price policy might also have been instrumental in drawing numbers to the newly-opened store. The concept that the Praktiker store offers is that of the Do-It-Yourself and home improvement business. The success of the opening may be due to the large-scale and probably very effective advertisement campaign, but may also suggest a market thirst for affordable solutions in home care or improvement. Praktiker Group, which is “one of the leading DIY chain operators in Europe” believes its store to be the first DIY store opened in Albania, but interest for a Do-It-Yourself offer had existed before in the country and few other stores propose or will shortly propose DIY articles. “On 30 October 2009, the first DIY and home improvement center with an area of around 8,700 square meters will open its gates in the capital of Tirana. This move will make Praktiker a pioneer in this market: So far there has been no comparable retail format – whether operated by a national or international corporation – in the whole country”, reads the press release of the group, issued in Kirkel, Germany on the 23nd of September 2009.
Interest in DIY
But as a matter of fact, not far from the new store opened by Praktiker, only a short distance on the other side of the road that connects Tirana to Durr쳬 in a complex of stores called Casa Italia, for some years now exists another DIY store called La Prealpina. The Italian enterprise, La Prealpina was for some time the only such store near the Albanian capital and perhaps all over the country. But Prealpina’s first DIY’s position in the country was in 2009 challenged by another but smaller DIY-concept shop near the artificial lake of Tirana, another high-end of the city. And finally the opening of the Praktiker store on the 30th of October has brought more competition in the DIY market. And the DIY offer might enlarge soon and count a new entrant informed Tirana Times in the pages of its former issue. This will be the French company Mr. Bricolage, which will run expansion in the Balkans from Sofia, Bulgaria, where “Doverie Brico has extended by 10 years its franchise deal with the French DIY retail chain Mr. Bricolage”. The Albanian arm of the Bulgarian Doverie Brico will be named Briko Iliria and will open near Tirana in 2010 (see former Tirana Times issue).
The multiplication of the DIY offer may suggest a thirst of the Albanian consumer for affordable home care and improvement solutions. Whether this is a permanent need which had not sufficiently been met with an abundant and multi-present offer, or whether a much-talked-of worsening of the economic climate and of the economic confidence in the country have made DIY a necessity is yet early to say. It is true though, that in both hypotheses more affordable solutions make a good commercial argument.
