Anyone walking through Vienna today will see a Billa store on almost every corner. But when Karl Wlaschek laid the foundation for his retail empire, he wasn’t yet thinking about sausage sandwiches or fresh tomatoes.
On December 7, 1953, he opened his very first store on Ziegelofengasse in Margareten. The space in the 5th district offered the people of Vienna something completely unexpected at the time.
A Perfumery as the Birthplace
Instead of groceries, Wlaschek sold brand-name drugstore and perfume products at carefully calculated discount prices. His self-service concept was still completely unusual and new in Austria at that time.
During our on-site visit to Ziegelofengasse, hardly anything today reminds us of this historic retail space. At first glance, the quiet residential street gives no hint that the foundation for a billion-euro corporation was laid here over 70 years ago.
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The Birth of the “Cheap Store”
It wasn’t until the late 1950s that the entrepreneur finally added groceries to his product range and expanded the store’s floor space. The famous abbreviation Billa—derived from “Billiger Laden” (cheap store)—didn’t even officially appear until 1961.
From that small discount perfume shop, the company quickly grew to several hundred locations throughout the country. Today, the name shapes Vienna’s cityscape like almost no other retailer.
