Skihose

There's one local place whose business model I've never entirely understood. Tchibo makes an excellent cup of coffee/cappuccino/etc (it's where Gretchen started to develop a taste for coffee)...but then they also sell completely random merchandise that basically changes every week. Imagine if Starbucks sold ski equipment one week, toiletry items the next, etc. Anyway, that's Tchibo. Do they have loyal shoppers who go every week to see what the new merchandise is? Or do they use coffee to get people in the door and hope they make impulse purchases of whatever is available? I dunno, but today I got sucked in. Last night was the annual meeting for the ski club at work, so I guess I have skiing on the brain. As I was walking past the new Tchibo next to the train station today, I saw they had a bunch of ski stuff. Next thing I knew, I was walking out of there with a pair of ski pants (or Skihose as they're called here) that cost 1/3 of what Gretchen priced at a local ski store earlier this week (when getting out my winter clothes this weekend I found a big tear in my old pair, which I actually got from Gretchen's dad so they must be at least 10 years old). I still don't know if they fit or if they're really crappy quality since I bought them at a coffee house, but at least for now the Tchibo experience has been slightly de-mystified.