The large supermarket chains in Germany are looking for thousands of new employees to serve meat, sausage or cheese at the counters. Edeka’s job portal currently has around 4,600 vacancies for this, while Rewe has more than 3,400. “Butchers and meat salespeople in particular are desperately needed,” said Philipp Hennerkes, managing director of the German Food Trade Association (BVLH). Demand has been increasing for years because there are not enough young talent coming up.
Retail as a whole is severely affected by a shortage of skilled workers. According to the German Retail Association (HDE), there are around 120,000 vacancies. The staff shortages at the service counters are particularly affecting supermarkets such as Rewe, Edeka and Kaufland. “The counters and the advice are an important distinguishing feature from discounters, and companies want to be good at that,” said Hennerkes.
Due to a lack of staff, Edeka retailers in some regions are also relying on more flexible store design concepts, where goods can also be offered for self-service, as the “Lebensmittel Zeitung” recently reported. The so-called hybrid counters can therefore also operate without staff during off-peak times. The BVLH confirms that the number of such hybrid forms is increasing.
Edeka contradicted reports that the fresh produce counters could be threatened with abolition. The counters are “the heart of the Edeka stores” and remain important; they are not up for discussion, the company said. Almost all of the approximately 7,000 Edeka stores are equipped with counters for meat, sausage or cheese.
Dealer recruits staff from India
“Nobody at Edeka wants to close their service counters,” said Karsten Pabst, managing director of Edeka Hieber. The company, which owns 16 stores in Baden-Württemberg, is one of the largest independent Edeka retailers in Germany. They are trying to expand the service counters, said Pabst, but it would still make sense to supplement them with self-service concepts. Hieber is also feeling the problems of finding new talent. For this, staff is not only being sought in Germany. The supermarket chain is recruiting trainees from India, especially for the meat counter. Other Edeka retailers have similar projects.
The Edeka retailer Stadler and Honner from Bavaria wants to focus more on self-service. “We are finding it increasingly difficult to man the counters these days,” said managing director Daniel Honner to the “Lebensmittel Zeitung”. In a market in Munich, the service counter has been shortened from 24 to 7.5 meters, and the remaining meters are used to offer self-service meat and sausages. Honner also attributes this to a change in purchasing behavior. “We are adapting to demand in urban areas. The 20-year-old student in Munich shops differently than the 70-year-old pensioner in the country.”
At Rewe, service counters “still have a future,” the company says. Around 2,000 of the 3,800 Rewe stores have counters to supplement the self-service offering. The increasing digitization in the stores creates scope to use employees more in service-oriented activities, it said. The full-range retailer Kaufland is also looking online for staff for service counters. “Our customers really appreciate this offer. That’s why we offer service counters in most of our stores and will continue to do so,” said a spokeswoman. To give customers a free choice, there are packaged products for self-service in addition to the counters.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240909-930-227240/1
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