Retail: Musik Hug closes locations
Music retailer Musik Hug, which has a presence throughout Switzerland, plans to close branches and cut jobs. The long-established company will close its locations in St. Gallen and Basel next year.
Basel and St. Gallen are two of a total of twelve Musik Hug locations in Switzerland; these also include Bern, Lausanne and Geneva. The two locations suffer particularly badly from shopping tourism because of their proximity to the border, according to Musik Hug. The Basel store is the company's oldest branch, centrally located at Freien Strasse 70. In St. Gallen, Musik Hug can be found at Fürstenlandstrasse 96.
Musik Hug is one of the largest and oldest music stores in Europe. However, online trade and shopping tourism are causing problems for the family-owned company. In addition, there is a difficult economic environment, especially in the retail trade with poor consumer sentiment, Erika Hug, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Musik Hug, told the SRF. "Especially in the cultural sector, we have been experiencing a decline for years". (ah)
