On 1 July 2023, Germany’s second-largest food retailer stopped printing its weekly promotional flyers:
On 1 July 2023, Germany’s second-largest food retailer stopped printing its weekly promotional flyers:
As the industry leader, REWE is now focusing its attentions on digital promotions
As the industry leader, REWE is now focusing its attentions on digital promotions
The largest environmental organisation supports its long-standing partner’s commitment to sustainability
To bid it farewell, the retailer donates the printed flyer to a pop-up gallery in Berlin
Saturday tends to be the day when decisions are made about the following week’s shopping. In Germany, that’s when brightly coloured promotional flyers come through people’s letterboxes, listing the very latest bargains. It is a long-standing tradition in German households. No other promotional tool is as well established in the retail sector. To change it would be unthinkable, until now. REWE is Germany’s first large retailer to think the unthinkable. On 1 July 2023, REWE retired the printed flyer for the good of the environment and the climate, thus revolutionising the way that millions of Germans plan their weekly shopping.
To send it on its way, the company has honoured the retail icon with its own exhibition. On 23 June 2023, REWE Group board member Peter Maly handed over the final ever printed REWE flyer to Leif Miller, CEO of NABU, a German environmental organisation, at the #umdenkbar Galerie (#rethink Gallery) in Berlin. This action demonstrates REWE’s commitment to protecting our natural resources and reducing its own carbon footprint,
said Miller. NABU’s CEO did not miss the opportunity to say his own goodbye to the printed flyer in Berlin. We are delighted that REWE takes its social responsibility seriously and hope that other competitors in the food retail industry will follow its lead.
NABU has been supporting REWE’s commitment to sustainability as an independent body since 2009.
REWE had announced its intention to stop printing promotional flyers the previous summer. Many people think this is a risky decision. After all, the printed flyer has been far and away the industry’s most important promotional tool for decades. At REWE, printed offers have been part of our corporate history since the 1930s,
says Peter Maly at Berlin’s #umdenkbar Galerie (#rethink Gallery). When it comes to sustainability, we can only make progress by rethinking what we do. We need to question the old ways and show courage. With our future-focused mix of digital offers, TV and adverts, we can reach our customers in a more targeted and more sustainable way.
In 2016, REWE was the first German food retailer to bid farewell to another food retail industry icon for the good of the planet – by getting rid of plastic bags. The end of the printed flyer is the next logical step in the retailer’s digitalisation and sustainability strategy – and once again, it is leading the way.
The end of the printed flyer does not mean that REWE customers will have to do without bargains in the future. They will still be able to choose from over 300 attractive weekly promotions. And REWE is making its promotions more targeted and future-proof. From now on, customers can check the latest weekly promotions in the REWE app, at rewe.de/angebote, the REWE newsletter, on WhatsApp or through conventional media such as newspapers or on the radio. We want to reach customers of all ages through the channels that they use each day. The new media mix for disseminating our special offers has undergone successful and intensive trials in urban and rural areas,
explains Peter Maly. We are investing the savings made by discontinuing the printed flyer wisely, through an advertising campaign in daily newspapers, on radio and television, and by supporting selected sustainability projects such as NABU’s climate fund.
twice the total circulation of all daily newspapers in Germany. The new approach to promotional communications is saving the company more than 73,000 tonnes of paper, 70,000 tonnes of CO2, 1.1 million tonnes of water and 380 million kWh of energy.
REWE’s printed flyer is certainly not going quietly. After all, it marks the end of a piece of retail history. To celebrate the passing of this retail icon, REWE set up the #umdenkbar Galerie in the Berlin Freiheit exhibition space. The retailer is not only exhibiting the last copy of the printed flyer in the pop-up gallery. Four artists have also explored the end of the flyer in a series of contemporary works.
