De Stofzuigerkoning has been at number 136H on Jan van Galenstraat since 1936, and in those ninety years it has become the specialist for household vacuum cleaners.
Owner Steven Klijn, 43, sells vacuum cleaners, accessories and parts such as bags and nozzles.
He also repairs almost every brand, using both new and carefully selected second-hand parts.
“The vacuum cleaner specialist is dying out. In Amsterdam we are the only one,” Klijn says.
He believes personal contact is what sets the shop apart from the big electronics chains.
If something goes wrong with a vacuum cleaner bought from him, he helps, and he often repairs it on the spot.
A shop and a museum
Fewer people know that the shop is also a vacuum cleaner museum.
Its shelves hold classics such as an Electrolux from 1934, a vacuum cleaner decorated with rhinestones and one carrying the old Ajax logo.
The Ajax model used to stand in the window, but Klijn moved it when the club was playing badly.
Klijn is the fifth owner. His father bought the business in 2008 from the previous owner, who had worked there for about forty years.
Klijn had trained in retail and ran a parts shop in Hoorn with his father, but he focused on the Amsterdam shop after his father died in 2014.
New customers and Dyson repairs
The shop supplies hotels, restaurants, gyms and local residents, as well as Amsterdammers who have moved from West to Almere or Purmerend.
Klijn works with the German maker Sebo, which he sees as the best alternative to Miele, and has a range of his own built to his wishes and carrying his shop’s logo.
He says expats in particular want durable products and find him by searching for “vacuum cleaner” online.
These younger customers are welcome as his older clientele slowly disappears.
Unlike his father, he repairs Dyson vacuums, and he is working on a project to refurbish discarded machines for resale.
Looking for other independent shops in the city? Browse our directory of Amsterdam businesses.
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