Edeka customers have to change: branch in Germany eliminates almost all cash registers
Created: 11/26/2022, 4:55 am
By: Kathrin Reikowski
An Edeka in Germany introduces almost exclusively self-service checkouts (symbol image) © Sven Simon/Imago
Edeka customers on Sylt will soon have to change when shopping.
According to the operators, the supermarket is the first in Germany to take a big step.
Sylt - Whether it's quick after-work shopping or big weekly shopping on Saturdays at Edeka: Anyone who needs groceries on Sylt will have to change their habits in the future.
The Edeka market in List on Sylt, which is modern according to the
Abendblatt
, has not had a fresh food counter for a long time.
Now the customers have to do without another service.
"We are the first supermarket in Germany that largely does without a classic checkout zone," says Jörg Meyer from Hamburg, who runs several Edeka shops in the north.
In 2019 he and his business partner Nicki Jablunka took over Lister Edeka.
Edeka on Sylt is cutting the cash register staff
The background to the measure is the lack of staff, which, according to the
Abendblatt
, is particularly noticeable on Sylt.
"The situation is dramatic," says Meyer.
He runs a total of ten supermarkets in the north in the family business.
Instead of putting the goods on the conveyor belt and having a cashier collect them, the residents of Sylt now primarily line up at one of the six self-service checkouts.
Only one cash register is currently occupied by an employee.
Another cash register innovation started at Edeka in 2021.
Test at Edeka got off to a good start - self-service checkouts make up a third of sales
The new model was already being tested in August of this year.
The then four so-called self-scanner cash registers were a success.
"It was immediately well received," says Jablunka.
And there was one advantage: Queues in front of the cash registers were significantly reduced as a result.
"That saves nerves and time." 30 percent of annual sales have already passed through the new tills.
Two things are important to the two Edeka retailers: four of the new cash registers also work with cash.
And Meyer emphasizes that the employees don't have to worry: "It's guaranteed that nobody will be fired because of the new registers." The price explosions in supermarkets are now causing criticism among experts.
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