A double-length bus stocked with the necessities of life has become a grocery lifeline for a number of small villages in Germany that no longer have a local grocery.
Many of Germany’s rural villages are losing local stores as population shifts to more built-up areas and stores find themselves without enough customers to make a profit, and the grocery bus, a joint project of the REWE supermarket chain and rail operator Deutsche Bahn is an experiment in meeting the need.
The operation began in March in a string of villages in the state of Hesse, stopping at 23 villages over the course of a week, covering over 600 kilometers. It stops in each village for 90 minutes, and in some, has become a regular meeting place for elderly residents to meet up while shopping.
REWE stocks the bus with 950 items, including fresh produce, and charges the same prices as in its brick-and-mortar stores. It’s not clear yet whether REWE can make a profit from the service, which is still an experiment. But an official pointed out that it does allow the company to serve, in essence, 23 stores with one set of employees.
The grocery chain says it will wait until the pilot ends in early 2025 to decide on any expansion plans, but DB is on board in the meantime with other services; it is currently running eight medical buses that provide services to aging patients in remote areas, and is considering a bank bus.
