The village store in Kaltenbrunn near Itzgrund in Upper Franconia has been providing local supplies for people in the region since 2017. Located between Coburg and Bamberg, the village store not only offers the usual range of products, but also includes a small café.
Expansion to a 24/7 self-service store
In 2024, the Itzgrund Market was extensively restructured to a 24/7 self-service store within the period of six months.
The idea for that came from the store manager Alexandra Holly and Brigitte Thomas, who is responsible for Controlling and IT in the village store. According to Willi Heubner, one of the main shareholders of the Itzgrund store, the switch to the hybrid concept was intended to make the store sustainable in the future. This is not only a response to the problem of difficult staff recruitment in rural areas, but also to changing shopping behavior. People are increasingly shopping outside the regular opening hours, and paying with a bank card is becoming more and more popular.
To convert the Itzgrund Market into a 24/7 store, the store space had to be adapted by separating sertain areas with the help of additional shutters inside the store. The range of products had to be made scannable. Additional equipment also had to be purchased: the self-scanning pay terminal and cameras for the video surveillance were implemented with the help of the company Schapfl from Straubing.
Access to the 24/7 store should be as simple as possible and should not exclude anyone, i.e. both regular customers and new customers should be able to enter the village store without any effort. The Itzgrund Market team became aware of VF's access solution through their own internet research. The desicion for VF VeriFlexx system was made due to several reasons:
When asked what additional features on the access system would be helpful, Brigitte Thomas expressed the wish that there could be a beeping sound when the card is successfully scanned. This will be implemented shortly with a firmware update. Customer-specific adaptations of the VF VeriFlexx system are therefore possible.
The implementation of age verification is planned for the near future so that alcoholic beverages can also be offered 24/7 in Itzgrund Market.
Itzgrund Market is the first 24/7 store in the region and is therefore a pioneer in local supply around the clock. The Itzgrund Market team has already received inquiries for similar projects, and companies in the region are showing great interest in implementing the hybrid store concept. Willi Heubner is happy that the concept will hopefully soon be replicated.
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