Can hybrid village stores answer rural Germany’s ‘cry for help’ and fend off far right?

Key Takeaways

• Once upon a time, every German village had its own Tante Emma laden (Aunt Emma shop), a family-run hub of community life where local people bought their groceries at affordable prices and shot the breeze with their neighbours.
• But in recent years the loose network of small businesses throughout Europe’s biggest economy has come under huge pressure from staffing shortages, competition from supermarket chains and rising inflation, which the Iran war has again sent surging.
• Concerned that the creeping death of the stores is also fuelling the rural disaffection that has driven many voters to political extremes, governments in several regions have stepped in with some 21st-century innovation.
• In Rhineland-Palatinate, where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland came third with nearly 20% in a state election in March – a record in a west German region – officials are seeking to root out the wellsprings of the party’s appeal in rural areas.
• Under a pilot programme known as hybrid village stores, existing businesses are being retrofitted so villagers over the age of 18 can shop out of hours autonomously: letting themselves in with an electronic fob or card, shopping and paying on their own.