Peek and Cloppenburg (Vienna)

There are two branches of Peek and Cloppenburg in Vienna, although the one I intend to concentrate on is the one on the Mariahilferstrasse (number 26-30 on the corner of Stiftgasse). It is easy to get to, being 250m from the U3 stop at Neubaugasse and about 400m from the U2 stop Museumsquartier (formerly named Babenburgerstraße). Having lived in Vienna for nearly four years I have managed to get quite a few good bargains here, although you have to ...
...card. Update - October 2004: Peek und Cloppenburg may soon be changing its policy to allow owners of Austrian Maestro cards to use their debit cards in-store. That will be a big relief for me, rather than raiding bank machines before going shopping.

The reason I choose to go to P&C is because of the wide range of designer labels that they have there. I tend to stick to a few tried and tested labels, with Calvin Klein, Burberry, Hugo ... more

There are two branches of Peek and Cloppenburg in Vienna, although the one I intend to concentrate on is the one on the Mariahilferstrasse (number 26-30 on the corner of Stiftgasse). It is easy to get to, being 250m from the U3 stop at Neubaugasse and about 400m from the U2 stop Museumsquartier (formerly named Babenburgerstraße). Having lived in Vienna for nearly four years I have managed to get quite a few good bargains here, although you have to know what you are looking for in order to find them, especially if you are "normally sized i.e. take a large to XL in most menswear - they never seem to have as much in these sizes as they do in Medium!)

A lot of people are attracted to Palmers for underwear, probably mainly because of their provocative advertising campaigns, although the fact of the matter is that their mens underwear is overpriced and doesn’t last as well as some of the labels that are sold in P&C, and nor is it a lot cheaper that P&C. I frequently notice that P&C has some items on clearance, so had a good rummage through their displays, and have found found Polo Ralph Lauren boxer shorts at EUR 17.90 per pair, whereas in Steffl (Kärntnerstrasse) and other outlets the same boxer shorts were retailing have been retailing at about EUR 24.90..

The store used to be renowned for their high level of customer service, as when the store was first opened, P&C sent in people from Germany to oversee the training and to ensure that staff paid enough attention to the customer. Recently I have noticed that there was no attention paid to me whatever, although I was relieved as after all I wanted to just rummage in peace and get what I wanted without an overly intrusive shop assistant making bright suggestions every five minutes.

Of course one thing I did resent is the way that as I approached the cash desk, a swarm of sales assistants pounced, desperate to put their sticker on my purchases (I can only presume that this is some kind of a commission thing), when the reality was that they had made absolutely no contribution to my shopping experience. Furthermore the stickering of goods by the assistants actually leads to queues forming at checkouts as the items are then run through the tills once the assistant who had swiped your goods from you has made it to the checkout. At this point I must point out that if you want to save embarrassment at the cash desk, make sure you do not try and pay with plastic - they don't accept any credit cards other than American Express or debit cards - they do of course accept a store card. Update - October 2004: Peek und Cloppenburg may soon be changing its policy to allow owners of Austrian Maestro cards to use their debit cards in-store. That will be a big relief for me, rather than raiding bank machines before going shopping.

The reason I choose to go to P&C is because of the wide range of designer labels that they have there. I tend to stick to a few tried and tested labels, with Calvin Klein, Burberry, Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren tending to be top of the tree for my purchases.

The selection of goods is excellent, with the departments always better stocked than at Steffl. The shop is on five levels (basement, ground and 1st-3rd floors) with most of the labels occupying a section of one floor, although there are some who are spread over two floors, depending on what they are selling.

As a general guide, the very casual stuff is in the basement, a lot of casualwear, shirts and casual womenswear is on the ground floor, childrenswear on the first floor, the womens department is on the second floor, menswear on the third, with suits at the back of the shop up two floors. The fourth flooring is a commercial gallery - there are about 2-3 exhibitions a year - typical of modern art, by artists who are well known in Vienna.

For shirts and ties, there are few places in Vienna that have a wider range of sizes and styles, with all sorts of brands to choose from, with the Van Laack selection being pretty good, and in fact better than the actual Van Laack shop on the Graben, although without the packaging and frills. The general range of brands is very strong, with in excess of 60 designer labels represented according to their website. (See www.pundc.de) and go to Store Locator to see details of how to get to the Vienna branches and for a list of their brands.

Update October 2004: I have just bought two suits from Peek und Cloppenburg. Apart from some of the brands like Hugo Boss, all the suits they sell for men are located at the back of the third floor. I required two suits, and having found what I wanted (they do some great Cerrutti cloth suits - the best thing being that whilst the cloth is by Cerrutti they are cut more generously - otherwise the fit of suits by Italian designers is often not particularly good for me) I tried them on. They do do off the peg suits although if you require alterations they can do these efficiently - I bought two suits which needed the trousers being taken up. A couple of phone calls and I was told that I could collect them two days later - and the alteration costs were very reasonable - €7.50 with turn-ups and €6.90 without - I recollect paying at least GBP 15 about five years ago for a single suit at Moss Bros. - and having to wait ten days!

The wide door lifts are suitable for wheelchair use - otherwise the store is an escalator zone... and most of the cashdesks are at relatively low heights so as to be disabled-friendly.

The shop is open during normal shopping hours (10:00am – 7:00pm Mon-Wed, 10:00am-8:00pm on Thursdays and Fridays and 9:00am - 6:00pm on Saturdays, there now being late night opening ) and whilst it is not as cheap as say if you head to an out of town outlet, its location makes it a convenient place to shop, although your wallet may groan if your forays are too frequent. 

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