Village shop fights for its customers - discount system should help
Created: 07/21/2022, 08:30
By: Ulrike Osman
The village shop in Schöngeising (archive photo) © mmh
The fact that the Schöngeisinger village shop has to fight for survival is repeated with sad regularity.
A discount system for customer loyalty is now being considered.
Schöngeising – slumps in sales repeatedly push the full-range retailer, which is organized as a cooperative, to its financial limits.
A non-representative customer survey recently brought two points of criticism to light.
There are too many employees in the store - and the waiting times at the bread and sausage stand are too long.
Lots of staff
The chairman of the supervisory board, Sigurd Höppner, explained in the municipal council that a lot of staff was busy at certain times: stocks had to be checked in the morning and orders had to be placed, often on an hourly basis.
The village shop obtains its goods from the retail group Rewe and has to adhere to specified ordering times.
It would be simpler and less labour-intensive with a digital cash register system including goods control and automatic ordering function - but the village shop cannot afford such a technical upgrade.
Höppner also pointed out that not all visible employees were necessarily stamped.
Some would volunteer at the store in addition to their paid work.
The village shop employs a total of 16 people.
Your total working time corresponds to six full-time positions.
In addition, five volunteers take care of payslips and tax returns behind the scenes.
The problem of waiting times, which are perceived as too long, arises in particular when the local bakery is closed.
"You have to take advantage of that," advised Anton Schmölzl (CSU).
Instead, the village shop cannot keep up with peak demand by baking rolls and pretzels.
(
By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular
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Apparently, the people of Schöngeising mainly turn to local suppliers when shopping outside is difficult.
In the Corona year 2020, the village shop could not complain about a lack of inflow, nor with the recent closure of the B 471, which made the way to the AEZ in Buchenau cumbersome.
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High prices
However, this is not enough to secure the store's long-term existence.
"We're living hand to mouth at the moment," says Höppner.
With the current inflation, supplier prices would go through the roof.
"We are also clearly feeling the increase in the minimum wage." People are grateful for the new cooling system, which was purchased with the help of a financial injection from the community and installed by 20 volunteers.
It has reduced power requirements by 40 percent and is less prone to repairs than the previous model.
In order to strengthen customer loyalty, the introduction of shopping cards and a discount system are being considered, says Höppner.
Advertisements should also be made with the help of customer testimonials (“I buy from the village shop because...”).
Most recently, the supervisory board again distributed a "shake-up letter" in town.
Deputy Mayor Thomas Betz (FW) has calculated that every household would have to shop for 100 euros a month in the village shop to ensure its continued existence.
You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.
