German Towns Embrace Village Stores
Villagers would rather shop in smaller stores than supermarkets or big-box stores.
Jul 29, 2019
FARCHANT, Germany—The village store, or dorfladen, is making a comeback in Germany’s towns, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Townspeople come in to grab a cup of coffee, yogurt or local wurst.
Five years ago, local Peter Böhmer decided to bring back the town’s village store. Despite multiple discount stores within a three-mile radius, he believed a small general store could not only survive but thrive. Turns out, he was right. Around 300 residents chipped in to help him purchase and open the Farchant dorfladen.
Today, the store serves around 300 customers each day and earned the 2018 “Village Store of the Year” award for its “going local” vision. Böhmer caught the first wave of a surge against big-box stores and for a simpler way of life. Of the 300 dorfladen opened in Germany since the early 2000s, about 100 came into business within the past five years.
The Farchant store “is only the start, a tool to implement his vision for a future where people collaborate, driven by solidarity and concern for local products,” said Dr. Christina Hertel with the Technical University of Munich. Younger Germans “want to see their kids grow up in a well-functioning village.”
Farchant youth “are beginning to understand that this ‘ever greater, bigger, faster’ way of life has reached its limits,” said resident Gabriele Möckl. “They’re coming back to the way things used to be and going local—buying local eggs, milk, cheese, and meat. A stake is securing the future of the next generation.”
The German convenience market will be the focus of the 2020 NACS Convenience Summit Europe to be held July 2-4 in Berlin. To learn more about the 2020 event and get a heads up when registration is open, visit conveniencesummit.com.
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