Germany's REWE Group has launched a sustainable supermarket on board a train, in collaboration with Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Regio and Fairtrade Deutschland.
The special train comprises three shopping cars and an on-board bistro.
REWE Supermarket Train
The train offers Fairtrade, organic, and regional foods and customers can shop from a range of 3,000 items between 9am and 7pm.
In all train stations, the store is managed by a team of 30 apprentices from the respective sales area.
"The train is ecological, fast and comfortable as a means of transport," said Mario Theis from DB Regio. "We accompany many people in their everyday life and help them to be sustainably mobile – whether to work, to enjoy nature, to visit friends, or even to go shopping.
"For DB Regio, sustainability and regionality are in our DNA. This is something that we have in common with our partners REWE and Fairtrade and that we would like to advance together."
Sustainability Focus
"Seasonal, regional, fair - that is the triad of sustainability that REWE is demonstrates with this fairtrade supermarket on a train," said Jürgen Scheider, chairman of the management board of REWE.
Carsten Lorenz, head of key account management at Fairtrade Germany, added, that the project demonstrates "how many areas of our everyday life we can make more sustainable and fairer.
"It fits in with the fact that five of the six cities in which the train stops are excellent Fairtrade cities, which are committed to more sustainability and fair trade at the local level."
After stopping at Frankfurt Central Station in early November, the train also visited Fulda and Gießen. It is scheduled to stop at Kassel, Darmstadt, and Wiesbaden every Friday and Saturday over the coming weeks until 11 December.
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Conor Farrelly. For more Retail news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.