[M II A II R II K]

Small-Town Corner Shops Making a Comeback


11/05/2009

By Daniela Schröder

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...659328,00.html

Mega-supermarkets and discount stores killed the corner store in small-town Germany. But now they're making an unexpected comeback by offering mixes of products and services tailored to the local population and, of course, the town gossip you can't get in a hypermarket.

***

- The age of the traditional corner store is over. As supermarkets and discount stores grew bigger and bigger, smaller stores just couldn't compete with their bargains. And the smaller the town, the worse things are.

- But it's all coming back to Gülzow now. When the regional government launched a subsidy program four years ago, the village gladly got on board. In the end, it received €800,000 ($1.2 million) in development funds. The community of Gülzow invested €1 million of its own on top of that and purchased a building in the middle of the village which would house the new store.