The customers’ verdict is in…and Schlecker is out

In the 1960s and 70s a retail revolution swept across Germany and captured my imagination, changing the way I would shop forever. For the first time, “self-service” stores, like those I had envied on American television shows, began to appear. Suddenly I was free to lose myself in hundreds of products—and it was possible to even touch them. Shopping became an experience, not just a functional transaction.