March 28 at Limmatquai: This is how we opened Zurich’s new Revendo store.

March 28, shortly after 6 a.m. Zurich Hotel.

The alarm clock rang agonizingly long this morning. Still sleepy and with half-open eyes, I look out the window. Gray sky. The few spring flowers standing by the street below also tried to wrap themselves in their thickest coats today. One or two probably regret not waiting another week or two before blooming. The view of my iPhone confirms what I already suspected. Single-digit temperature, cloudy, and occasional drizzle. Well, if our opening today at Limmatquai is really going to be a big success.

I put on the pants still dusty from the store renovation. "We didn’t quite finish last night and absolutely have to finish mounting the shelf in front of the windows by 10 a.m. today," I tell our CEO on the phone, holding the buffet coffee. Hopefully, he doesn’t forget the iPad that we want to raffle off today.

"That’s it," I call out to the store manager of our two Zurich locations, who arrived just before 10 a.m. to help. "You can gather your team right away, then we’ll brief everyone and open the doors," I add while putting the cordless drill in the box and sliding it out of visitors’ sight. In just under two weeks, we renovated our third Zurich store right in the heart of the city at Limmatquai to be able to open today. The marketing team sent newsletters, we advertised it on our website, and together with Tsüri ensured local reach. Nothing can really go wrong. Especially since the prize iPad has now also arrived from Basel. Now our raffle host just mustn’t be late to take over the big raffle at 4 p.m. on time.

Exactly at 10 a.m., I open the door. The air flowing in is still cold, but someone is already standing outside asking if they can come in. They can.

What then begins happens faster than I expected. The prize wheel, which the colleague had awkwardly set up earlier, spins. Click. Click. Click. And spins again. A woman, about sixty, with a shopping bag on her arm, comes in, picks up one of our opening offers, looks at it for a long time, puts it back, looks again, buys. I watch this from the corner of my eye and realize I haven’t had anything to drink since the buffet coffee this morning.

A father with two children. A young man who has been holding an iPhone 13 for twenty minutes without being able to decide. A group here because of Tsüri, you can hear that as they pass by. Outside it’s still drizzling.

Around half past three, the phone vibrates in my pocket. Our raffle host is here. I look up and already see him standing at the entrance, with the same energy he has brought to all other raffles in recent years. He does it so well that people even listen when he’s live advertising himself. Maybe that’s because he doesn’t sound like someone holding a microphone but like someone telling a story.

4 p.m. It’s getting busier and busier. The iPad is ready. The raffle tickets are in a cardboard box. The first ticket is drawn. The winner is not there. A second ticket is drawn.

A woman from the back third of the store takes a few steps forward. She has won. Her laughter starts quietly, then louder, then even louder, and eventually she can’t stop. Neither can we.

From 5 p.m. Apéro riche. The team that painted walls, assembled furniture, and counted screws until 11 p.m. last night is holding glasses. The store manager stands among them as if he’s never done anything else. Our CEO tells someone about Refurbished because he does that even when holding a glass.

Later, I go back to the shelf in front of the windows where I used the cordless drill at 7 a.m. this morning. It holds. Of course, it holds. There are days that exhaust you, and there are days that fulfill you. March 28 was both, in that order.

Limmatquai 62, 8001 Zurich
Open Monday to Friday 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Come by