Oberhausen.
The customers had hoped for a conversion, but the Pennymarkt in the three-city corner does not open again. A new hotel is being built next door.
Bad news for the local supply in the Oberhausen three-city corner. The Penny market on Mellinghofer Straße has been closed since the end of November and will not open again. This was confirmed by Christian Gerhards, expansion manager for the western region at Penny, when asked by the editors.
The wishes of local residents and customers, who had hoped for a conversion of the older building including the inner workings, but had been standing in front of closed doors since the end of November, have been shattered. The market is empty, the neon signs on the outside walls have been removed, the shopping trolleys have been taken away. Only a wall painted red in the parking lot, on which the company motto “First to Penny” is written, is reminiscent of the discounter.
“We decided to close it permanently because the branch was too small to run it in a modern, long-term manner. The competition is stronger,” summarizes Gerhards. “We had no opportunity to modernize the property with a view to a new building or an extension.”
Net in the immediate vicinity
The branch of the discounter competitor Netto is only separated by the street Katzenbruch. Further north along Mellinghofer Straße, around 700 meters away, is the discounter Aldi Süd, behind which is an Edeka supermarket. What all three stores have in common is that they are modern and significantly larger than the Penny store.
According to the company, the Penny branch on Mellinghofer Strasse has been a contact point for discount products since at least 1989. Employees have been doing their jobs there for many years. After the closure, these have now been distributed to the surrounding markets. In order to be able to continue shopping at Penny, customers now have to go to Straßburger Straße 145 – this is where the nearest market is located.
Meanwhile, the conversion work on the new “digital hotel” in the former restaurant “Zum Schwarzen Schaf” is continuing right next to the old branch. 20 rooms with 36 beds are to be built here. The entire hotel should make do with a small number of staff, for example check-in should be contactless at machines.
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