No pub, no shop, no problem as rural village launches unstaffed coop

The local shop in Wendisch Evern shut down a while ago and it's been a long time since the small northern German village has had its own pub.

Located just outside the city of Lüneburg, some 50 kilometres south of Hamburg, villagers who own a car have ample opportunity to do their shopping - but not everyone does, and even a couple of kilometres is a lot if you are only looking to buy milk.

A group of new residents came up with an idea for an unstaffed co-op to allow members to buy necessities around the clock and so far the concept has been a great success, says Mayor Rainer Leppel.

The shop, located inside an old barn, opened in June this year after the newcomers renovated the building for €100,000 ($111,000). Local authorities and the EU provided €40,000 while the group raised €12,000 in a crowdfunding campaign.

Now it's up to the shop to bring in enough to cover the rest.

The farmer who owns the barn is one of the project's seven shareholders and happy to be renting out to the group of volunteers.

"The whole thing is based on trust," says project manager Hannah Rothfuchs, but the members of the co-op are very motivated to keep the shop going, she finds.

Trust-based shopping

The group of volunteers is in charge of stocking the shop, which offers everything from frozen pizza to toilet paper but also local produce including potatoes and beef from nearby farms and fresh bread rolls on Saturdays.

Members can purchase a door chip that allows them to shop at the co-op 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The monthly fee for a one-person household is €15 or €25 per multi-person household.

So far 120 households have joined the scheme, and there's a trial day every Friday.

Members can post requests on a bulletin board.

Payments are exclusively by card and a surveillance camera has been installed to prevent fraud.

So far nothing has gone wrong, the operators say. In fact, some members would even like to become more involved, offering to help shelving.

Currently the shop only employs one part-time worker to accept deliveries from two organic wholesalers.

Some of the locals remain sceptical but that's okay, Rothfuchs says. "We're not dogmatic, not everyone has to become a member."

The group is able to compete with larger supermarket chains because they don't have to pay sales staff, meaning they can keep the prices low.

All profits go back into the business, explains 40-year-old co-founder Mario Eckhardt.

"It's great fun, but we only have so much energy," says co-owner Isabelle Wetzel, who does the shopping for her household of five at the co-op.

Outside the door, a customer is enjoying an ice cream on a small bench; the plan is to add more outdoor seating soon.

Wetzel dreams about expanding and adding a café one day, to give people a space to meet, though the shop has also helped to do that in a way.

Focus on regional produce

Sabine Hoppe from the Chamber of Agriculture says the project in Wendisch Evern reflects wider concerns over where our food comes from, with more and more people increasingly looking to buy regional produce, even in supermarkets.

Meanwhile, more and more farms across the region are setting up self-service vending machines to supplement their income, Hoppe says.

Self-service shops like the one in Wendisch Evern are particularly convenient for people in rural areas who lack mobility.

Authors Carolin George and Berit Neß have visited more than 40 farmers' shops in the Lüneburg region, showcased in a new book.

Most of them sell speciality produce from goat cheese to home-milled organic flour or even wine.

Above all, George concludes, "shopping at the farms makes you happy."