Everyone is saying that Germany is becoming an increasingly unattractive place to do business, and as a result, companies are thinking about leaving the country or moving their operations elsewhere. As a cooperative retail and tourism business, the REWE Group has deep roots in German cities and towns. This is our home, and we will continue to provide basic goods to millions of German citizens in the future. Unfortunately, it is true that the conditions for technological innovations are much more forward-looking outside of Germany. Political leaders in other countries often have greater courage to try new things, to allow innovations in general, and to accelerate the corresponding processes by lowering administrative barriers. This makes innovations a daily reality for a country’s citizens. For example, self-driving taxis are already a reality on the streets of San Francisco. And self-checkouts are now common in Asia.
But we don’t have to look that far. Recently, I was with my colleagues in Lithuania, where since July of this year, our IKI brand has been operating compact driverless delivery vehicles on the streets of Vilnius, the country’s capital, and delivering orders directly to our customers. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm for innovation on the part of the Lithuanian authorities, as demonstrated by fast and flexible approval processes, is not as evident here in Germany, where a project of this sort is difficult to imagine. And, unfortunately, this is not the first lost opportunity.
But we are not ones to bury our heads in the sand; we are continually and enthusiastically developing new technological options. I’ll provide some examples to demonstrate the range of innovations as well as our approach.
At our four REWE Pick&Go stores in Berlin, Cologne, and Munich, customers can shop without having to stop at the checkout. Using state-of-the-art camera and sensor technology, purchases are recorded securely and with minimal data collection and then automatically invoiced when the customer leaves the store. It’s important to note that the self-checkouts and REWE Pick&Go stores have not resulted in staff cuts. Instead, given the shortage of employees we’re seeing at the moment, we are able to put our colleagues to better use in other places to serve our customers.
Since October, customers in Michelstadt (Hesse) have been able to order food from their local REWE store and then have it delivered by a “Wingcopter” drone. In this way, we work with our partners to bring technological innovations to rural areas as well.
Modern technology also supports traditional processes in our stores. For example, we use technology to develop programmes that recommend the optimal products for each location. We can then use these modules to plan for the individual store. We are hard at work on several other applications.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is far from a new concept for the retail sector and the REWE Group. Very early on, we looked at the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence. Three years ago, we became one of the first companies in the retail sector to publish an “AI Manifesto” , which provides concrete recommendations for our developers when developing and using the relevant applications – and expressly takes ethical considerations into account.
Flexibility is crucial when working on technology projects, whether such projects involve internal and external experts, or collaborations across locations or national borders. But even the deployment of urgently needed external digitalization experts on agile projects is difficult in Germany, although we are very reliant on their innovative expertise. This slows projects in this country and can even result in such projects being shifted abroad. For this reason, we, along with several other companies, have made an appeal to the German Federal Minister of Labour, Hubertus Heil, as we can only overcome these challenges by working together.
