By Philipp Schäfer, e-volunteer

Kiezkaufhaus is a new invented word consisting of two independent German words. Kiez is an informal German word for the neighborhood or district in the town where you live. Kaufhaus is the German word for a department store.

The idea of Kiezkaufhaus was born when someone living in Wiesbaden, and working at the marketing agency “Scholz & Volkmer”, thought why the book I ordered online is shipped from e.g. Poland even if the publisher might be located in Frankfurt which is only about 40 kilometers away. The founders of the company thought that they must do something against this wasting of resources, and so they created this project which will be experimental for one year.

You can buy goods from local retailers at the online shop online just like you might know from ordinary online shops. They have food and non-food items available. For example fruits, vegetables, bread, dairy products, tee, wine, coffee … or books, flowers, stationery …

When your shopping cart is filled with the entire products you want to buy, you’ll need to register yourself at the shop and give them your address. The order is then spitted into multiple orders for each retailer you bought something from. The retailers prepare these orders. A courier with a cargo e-bike, powered with green energy, collects the different orders and puts them into a reusable bag. Afterwards he drives your order until your front door where you pay the goods in cash or by debit card. The delivery costs are between 3-5 euros if you are under 50 euros with your order. Otherwise it’s free.

By using only cargo e-bikes not delivery vans in cities about 51% exhaust fumes could be saved (Source: here ). And the local economy benefits because the town gets taxes from the local retailers. The town of Wiesbaden loses about 18 million euros each year because the inhabitants buy things online and not from local retailers (Source: here German only). The project also has a good impact on the charm of the city center, because the local retailers are supported and don’t need to sell their rooms to big companies when they earn to less money.

Notes:

Scholz & Volkmer have worked together with Greenpeace Germany on that campaign and with Friends of the Earth  Germany on multiple campaigns e.g. this one  and other NGOs.