Participated and bought

Germany’s first full-range hands-on supermarket will soon open in Munich. It belongs to the participants in the project; only they are allowed to shop there – and have to take on tasks in return.

From Hermann Scholz, BR Quentin Orain used to be a well-paid engineer in the automotive industry in Munich. He gave up this job – for an empty room of around 300 square meters. A hands-on supermarket is to be built here in mid-July, organized as a cooperative. They bought some of the furnishings from a closed Karstadt, among the participants are craftsmen who help with the furnishings or designers who have already designed the shop windows. The receptionist comes to the front of the door. Customers are checked there – because anyone who is allowed to shop here has to be a member of the cooperative. The new market should make it easier to consume sustainably. “I was missing a place where there is everything, from the region, organic, and also with little packaging, with a full range, everything you need in everyday life,” says the Frenchman Orain. The Munich market was modeled on similar markets in New York and Paris. The “Park Slope Food Coop” has been operating in New York for almost 50 years and has 17,000 members. Orain worked for the Parisian cooperative “La Louve” for a while to understand what it takes to be successful. The most important thing, he concluded, is the close ties between the project participants and the market.

Cheaper than traditional shopping?

The model works like this: Each member of the cooperative acquires shares of at least 180 euros – there are discounts for low-wage earners. To this end, he works three hours a month. There are also permanent employees. The market should offer the entire range of a conventional supermarket. The highlight: there is a continuous surcharge of 30 percent on the purchase price. This is how the sales price is calculated. They cannot keep up with special offers from comparable organic markets. But on average you get around 15 to 20 percent cheaper when shopping, estimates Orain – and sometimes even cheaper for vegetables. The idea for the hands-on supermarket arose from the popular initiative “Save the bees”. The initiators came to the conviction that one should not only impose rules on the farmers – one must also offer them an opportunity to market their goods. That is why the cooperative is already building a network of suppliers around Munich. The participants themselves decide on the standards for the food they buy. It doesn’t always have to be organic – for example, good keeping conditions for the animals whose meat they offer are also important.

The products come from the region

Every second Friday Kristin Mansmann from the cooperative drives to the organic estate Wallenburg in Miesbach south of Munich and packs boxes of fresh vegetables into her small car. Then it goes to the organic cheese dairy Obermooser in Irschenberg. Until now, the dairy has only sold its products in the immediate vicinity; With the cooperative, she succeeds in making the leap to the large Munich market. Mansmann picks up orders at the two courtyards – the cooperative is already functioning as a purchasing community, as a test run for the supermarket, so to speak. She delivers the orders in a garage next to the Munich wholesale market hall. Members are already setting up a distribution station there. Each member can come at a specified time and receive their order. Everything seems a bit improvised, but you know each other, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly.

Other cities are also planning hands-on supermarkets

The members of the cooperative have two motivations: the price – and the feeling of doing good. “The nice thing is that we know where things come from, you have a completely different connection to them,” says project participant Britta Bertsch. Manuel Schäffer only came by to have a look – but he already sees the advantages: “The work is manageable, and I have to pay in the supermarket too, and if in doubt, more than here.” The idea of ​​the hands-on supermarket seems to be slowly but surely gaining a foothold in Germany. There are already several purchasing cooperatives for fruit and vegetables, including in Munich. And when it comes to full-range supermarkets, Munich’s are the first, but also in Berlin (“Supercoop”) and Cologne (“Köllektiv “ ) want to start similar projects soon. The Munich cooperative needs around 800 members to function. She already has almost half.