Citizens' shop S’Lädche celebrates 30 years - success despite great challenges!

village shops in rural regions face major challenges, in particular through technological progress and online trading, which change the shopping behavior of consumers sustainably. Fewer and fewer customers opt for traditional shopping facilities, which leads to a decline in sales and even closures of village shops. The demographic change, which is characterized by aging the population and a decline in rural communities, also contributes to the problem. Young people tend to move to cities to use better job opportunities and educational opportunities. This leads to a shrinking population that results in a lower demand for goods and services.

An example of a successful village shop is the citizens' shop in Höringen, known as "S’Lädche", which has been operated for 30 years. Former Mayor Helmut Eisenbeiß initiated the project that was implemented with the support of the citizens. Elke Busch, who has been working in S’lädche since the beginning, knows the wishes of her customers closely. The store has designed its range through cooperation with regional providers, including butchers and bakeries. He is also supplied with a well-known organic brand and buys many products from the Edeka market in Winnweiler.

challenges and solutions for village shops

The challenges for village shops are diverse. Nowadays, consumers expect large shops with a wide range of products and modern payment methods. But the smaller village shops often have higher operating costs compared to large supermarkets, which also contains their economic situation. These costs include maintenance, warehousing and personnel costs. In addition, the limited size of the shops is an obstacle to the use of scale effects, which makes more profitable operations into account.

The citizens' shop in Höringen, however, took measures to improve its economic situation. The mayor of the Winnweiler community, Rudolf Jacob, offered support by supplying the village shop with drying range for the school kitchen. This initiative led to an increase in sales of almost 100,000 euros, which helped the S’lädche to have a positive financial result. The association that operates the shop is entered as an economic association, which offers it entrepreneurial options for action and contributes to securing the continuation of the business.