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September 2004

Going Global

How the Bavarian bug is taking the world by storm

Never accuse Wolfgang Greipl of being the king of kitsch. Yes, he may make his living selling thousands of Oktoberfest hats, do-it-yourself Bavarian party packs and Wies’n T-shirts to customers around the world. Yes, he may have had a hand in organizing beer festivals from Boston to Bangkok. But the founding owner of Munich’s booming Bavariashop is adamant the business is not just about tourist trash. “I do make a living from cliché,” he says. “But I consider myself more a missionary of Bavarian lifestyle and tradition as a whole.”

Bavariashop was born in 1998 out of Greipl’s desire to run his own business. “I wanted to come up with something that took into account my Internet background and my Bavarian heritage,” he says. “So what better than an online shop to promote Bavarian products and traditions?” Since then, business has gone from strength to strength. From the company’s modest beginnings, a regular day in the office may now involve arranging Bavarian welcome packs for corporate visitors to Munich, organizing Oktoberfests across the United States or giving customers in Thailand tips on how to cook the perfect Schweinsbraten. Over the years, Greipl and his team have kitted out the entire Oslo fire brigade with lederhosen and provided memorabilia and hats for the Hofbräuhaus in Las Vegas. In fact, it seems nothing is impossible. “We once had a customer in America who urgently needed a table and beer benches by the next day,” says Greipl. “Ok, so it cost € 600 in delivery charges, but we flew it there overnight.”

And it seems there’s no stopping him. Just like a bubbling liter of Augustiner, Greipl is overflowing with ideas as to how he can spread the Gemütlichkeit gospel further. For starters, he wants to work with Munich airport to provide a Bavarian survival kit to international passengers. “We’d like to greet people by placing a Wies’n heart around their neck, and by giving them a Bavarian translation guide to help them make the most of the place,” says Greipl. He is also involved in a project with the ACCOR hotel chain to create a Wies’n card, which will work in much the same way as an EC card and mean Oktoberfest visitors need not carry cash around with them. But Greipl has his sights set far beyond the Bavarian border: Bavariashop has just opened its first overseas branch in Shanghai. “Asia is really the fastest growing market at the moment,” says Greipl. “You only need look at places like Tawandang near Bangkok, which has 2,000 seats and is always full, or the Paulaner beer hall in Shanghai, which is the most popular place in town, to see that the demand for Bavarian lifestyle and memorabilia is there.”

So how does an Oriental Oktoberfest compare to the real thing? “It doesn’t have a lot to do with the original,” says Greipl. “For a start, Asians have a very different drinking culture. They don’t drink regularly, so after one beer they’ll all be completely drunk. I’ll never forget one occasion in Qingdao in China, where the guests of honor gathered for the tapping of the barrel to launch the event. They somehow weren’t quite as well-practiced as their Munich counterparts and beer ended up going everywhere, soaking all the important delegates.” On the other side of the Pacific things tend to be less raucous. “Americans are far more into the historical side,” says Greipl. “We arrived in Leavenworth, Washington, which has the second biggest Oktoberfest in the world, and found ourselves in what looked like an old Bavarian community with traditional houses and May poles everywhere.”

For all their different takes on the Bavarian original, the various locations have one thing in common. “You do find that there often tend to be Bavarian genes in the population,” says Greipl. “And clearly, people like to preserve their heritage, which is really what we’re all about. Our ultimate aim is to create a Bavarian community among different cultures and across many continents.” For more information check out www.bavariashop.com.

Bavariashop’s five best-selling items:
• Hats off to headwear—Bavariashop sells up to 80,000 Oktoberfest hats every year, from traditional pointed cloth numbers to those shaped like beer glasses.
• Die Krüge, hoch!—the sale of some 70,000 beer glasses a year is guaranteed to bring good cheer to Greipl and his team.
• Snuff tobacco—easier to post than a beer bench—and some 20,000 items of traditional Bavarian smoking accessories are delivered by Bavariashop every year.
• T-shirts—Been there, got the T-shirt? Thanks to Greipl, so do around 7,000 people a year.
• Bavarian party packs—from blue & white napkins, aprons, barbecues and tablecloths, Bavariashop sells countless goodies to make the party swing in true Bavarian fashion!

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