Saturn Electro-Handelsges. mbH, Altstadt, Hamburg

This place is pretty annoying. I’ve come here often to buy things I needed immediately (i.e. to avoid wait times associated with the Internet). Yet, I hate the place. It’s large but selection really isn’t that good. If you can’t find something, good luck finding a sales associate to lead you in the right direction. On busy days, the check-out lines are painfully slow. The layout is also poor as not common sense. Certain things are grouped together which belong together, yet lots of things are all over the place. Certain categories are also in multiple locations. Kinda dumb in my opinion. Saturn is one of the reasons I predominantly buy electronics online. Like I said, if you need something right away, and are in the area, check it out. If you can do so, avoid it.

This store is - compared to the american market - nothing special. It’s quite big, they have a variety of different electronics but there’s a huge downside. They don’t really give you a choice. Saturn only carries a few brands in different pricing categories, so if you go there to buy a keyboard for your kid, you will only find Casio keyboards. The catch is, that Casio keyboards are utter crap, but you won’t know because you don’t see anything else. (Now you know!)

The pricing is decent, not cheap. You will always get better deals on the internet or even elsewhere in Hamburg.

The only thing I visit Saturn for (and that’s why they get 5 stars to begin with) is the “Apple Store”. It’s not really an Apple store, just a small part of the basement, but they hold every major Apple product. So if you need a new PSU for your Macbook because your dog decided that the Magsafe connector is really tasty, you can get it there.

Further to Andrew's review, I thought that it might be worth pointing out that the cheapo 10m audio cables aren't exactly up-to-scratch. I also wouldn't recommend the most expensive audiophile audio cables, because that's just stupid. However, don't just get the cheapest one :)

One cool feature of the store is that you pick up all large items from a loading bay around to one side of the building. If you don't have a car, they will call you a taxi :)

I just bought an LCD TV from here. I'm so happy!!!!

Really pleased with TV and it's great for Wii sports. The service in Saturn is good when you can find someone, after 6pm the store can get very busy and sometimes it's difficult to find help.

They seem to have a generic version and a premium version of every plug, toy and appliance available. Don't make the mistake of paying over the odds for something you might be able to get for 1/2 the price! Generally Amazon is cheaper, but sometimes you just need the TV now! Right, back to the Legend of Zelda.....

As a reformed online gamer this place would be heaven for me still If I firstly had the dosh and a computer here in Hamburg.

Alas I don't! So I ventured in here with Sophie only to purchase speakers for her laptop and we found it all rather confusing, loud and hard to choose from such a huge selection.

Really technical stuff confuses the hell out of me and I find all the different buttons, lights and sounds a little distracting so it's hard to get serious and choose something sensible instead of wandering around aimlessly looking and poking at cool stuff.

Personally My wishlist at the moment from here is a Xbox360 a PS3 a computer, a laptop, and the latest upgrade of Battlefield!

Sigh!

Some women like the makeup counter at Macy's. Some women like the couture section at Harrods. Me, I like Saturn - with it's gadgets and gizmos, diddlybobs and thingamabobs.

Saturn is an electronics megastore spanning 6 floors which stocks anything and everything you'd expect under that category; mp3 players, televisions, gaming consoles, microwaves, washing machines, hi-fi systems, cds and dvds, cameras, pdas, computers, printers - and everything surrounding those.

Saturn's motto is "Geiz ist Geil" (recently remade to "Wir lieben Technik, wir hassen teuer"), indicating that their prices are significantly lower than other electronics shops. In reality, this is not particularly true. While Saturn's prices are in no way higher than other locations, the prices at Saturn are very much industry standard for most electronics - only their sales and specials (mainly on overstock) have significantly reduced prices. The good news is that there are many of these sales and specials, so if you've been wanting a 1st generation iPod shuffle or a Samsung digital camera from about 3 years back, Saturn will be the cheapest place for you to find those.

Saturn under-employ workers in every single one of their megastores which I've visited, so getting assistance in any of their departments is difficult at times, especially during peak shopping hours. When you do manage to get assistance, the folks who work at Saturn are generally knowledgeable and helpful - however they sometimes lack information regarding niche products.

Saturn won't let you pay with credit card at all - so prepare to whip out your EC card or to fork over some hard cash to pay for your purchases. This is probably the best for all of us - personally, if I would have been able to shop at Saturn with my credit card, I'd have to take up a part-time job there to pay off the debt.

Highly recommended for home and gift shopping, make sure you take note of the floor plan, otherwise you may get lost!

Saturn is like nothing I've ever seen outside of China. A giant electronics emporium on about 6 floors with everything in the whole world in stock. We went in with a friend intending to buy nothing and came out with a Nintendo Wii and I've now done more exercise this weekend than for the past year.

Fortunately I managed to restrain Andrew from buying the 65 inch LCD, so we're on the good old 12 inch black and white portable...