--- title: "The store where Spreat started | Spreat" description: "The Viertelladen in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk was the first store with Spreat: 33 producers on the shop floor, zero euros spent on stock - and an assortment that grew over more than a year." url: "https://spreat.com/en/stories/success/viertelladen" language: "en" --- [Back](https://spreat.com/en/stories?tag=success) - Success Stories - Retail & insights # The store where Spreat started A neighborhood store in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk, 33 producers on the shop floor - and the question of why this does not work everywhere. 12 August 2026 Translated from German [Read the original version](https://spreat.com/stories/success/viertelladen) ![Shop window of the Viertelladen in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/cover-800.webp) ## At a glance Store Viertelladen Location Düsseldorf-Unterbilk Type of space neighborhood store Role at Spreat marketplace from day one The Viertelladen sits in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk, between old apartment buildings and bars, and it is exactly what it looks like: a store for the neighborhood. Small space, fixed budget, an assortment from the streets around it - prints, cards, ceramics, clothing, Killepitsch. It is also the store where Spreat started. Not as a pilot project with a contract and a kickoff, but because someone had a problem that had no solution yet: a store this size can only buy what it can afford - and it can afford little. ![Shop window of the Viertelladen with the store logo](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-03.jpg) “Ein Viertel für's Viertel” - a quarter for the quarter, as the window says. ![Mattis Klöpper in the Viertelladen in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-01.jpg) Starting point ## Every euro tied up in goods is missing from the account The math of a small store is unforgiving. Carry ten producers and you have paid for those ten - and taking on an eleventh means spending money you do not have. So it stays at ten, and the space does less than it could. With Spreat the store buys nothing at all. The goods belong to the brands until someone takes them to the till; the store earns a commission. Ten producers became 33 - in the same space, with the same bank account. 10 producers before as many as the buying budget allowed 33 producers after on the same space €0 spent on stock the goods stayed the brands' property ## What is on the shop floor A look at the assortment as of January 2025: 385 items, 244 different products, 1,346 units in the store. The average price is €35 - well above a Christmas market, well below a gallery. The commission is usually 25%, with some brands 20%. More interesting than the totals is how they came about: between March and December 2024, new goods entered the assortment on 41 different days. No seasonal changeover, no order dates - the store topped up throughout the year whenever something fit. ![Shelves with framed prints and postcards in the Viertelladen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-02.jpg) ![A wall of prints and a table of small items in the Viertelladen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-04.jpg) Prints, cards, small runs - the store bought almost none of it. Stadtmomente at the Viertelladen. ![Handmade hair clips on a wooden stand in the Viertelladen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-07.jpg) ## Why it stays a neighborhood store A bigger assortment does not automatically turn a Viertelladen into a concept store - and it is not meant to. What comes in comes from the same city: posters of the Dreischeibenhaus, illustrations from the neighborhood, clothing from small labels, Killepitsch. That is exactly the point where the model works for a store this size. It does not have to guess what will land. It can put it out, and if it does not sell, it goes back - without a single euro having been spent on it. ![Framed prints with Düsseldorf motifs on a shelf board](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-05.jpg) ![Bottles of Killepitsch on the Viertelladen shelf](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-06.jpg) ![Sweatshirts from a small label, stacked in the Viertelladen](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/viertelladen/foto-08.jpg) > “You saved our store.” Klaus Mader co-founder, Viertelladen The line is from Klaus Mader, and he means it literally. What began here now runs in electronics stores and in a town's pop-up store - but the principle is still the same as back then in Unterbilk: the store is a marketplace, not a buyer. Is your store smaller than a chain branch and bigger than a market stall? Then the Viertelladen is the size we learned it on first. [Book a call](https://spreat.com/en/contact) Share this article ## More stories - [![Weeks instead of months into physical retail, and what a brand's risk really costs](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/schnellster-weg-in-den-einzelhandel/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## The fastest route into physical retail - and what it really costs a brand With Spreat, the brand carries the stock risk. That is true. But how big it is can be put in euros - and set against the routes where the retailer takes on the risk and gets paid for it. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/fastest-route-into-retail) - [![Four steps instead of buying stock: how much work the brands' goods take in a store](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/aufwand-fremde-ware-im-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights - Product ## How much work the brands' goods take in a store Space, staff time, return shipping: the brands' goods do not come for free. Here is what a store really does for them - and which work falls away in return. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/work-brand-goods-in-store) - [![Eight questions from Reddit and forums on consignment, commission and stock without buying it](https://spreat.com/media/images/stories/reddit-fragen-kommission-marktplatz-store/cover-en-800.webp) - Retail & insights ## The marketplace in the store: what retailers and brands ask on Reddit and in forums Eight questions about consignment, commission and stock without buying it, as they appear on Reddit, in German seller forums and on gutefrage - with the community's answers and what Spreat made of them. Read the story](https://spreat.com/en/stories/industry/reddit-questions-consignment-in-store-marketplace) ## And how about you? Store or brand - the way in is a different one. Tell us which side you are coming from. [I have a store](https://spreat.com/en/stores) [I have a brand](https://spreat.com/en/brands)