Grocer

Mom-and- pop shop is a conventional in Germany and Switzerland colloquial name for a small retail shop selling food and other everyday items. It is significant that the store is often so small that only one person, often the shop owner personally - just the " mom and pop " - works there.

In Austria, one speaks of the grocer. The term is commonly used as a synonym shopkeeper in Germany.

History

Mostly as a provider of food and groceries ( from where also the long time still used term grocery store herleitete ), but also other products for daily needs ( household goods, textiles, haberdashery, stationery, etc. ) claimed they used frequently for the local supply of goods of population. Common elements of personal loyalty were among other shopping "on cover letters ", discount coupons booklets, free gifts and samples, home deliveries, reservations and special orders on customer requirements, collection of gift baskets, cold cuts, etc. Children were always concerned with a little attention. With the legal prohibition of price controls in 1974 and the advent of the discounters, the decline of these sales culture was finally sealed.

Today, the nostalgic notion mom-and-pop store is synonymous with a (still) intact personal relationship and readiness between the local merchants and their customers, as opposed to anonymous discounters, department stores, self-service, supermarkets, shopping centers, boutiques in shopping malls or department stores.

Especially in rural areas, the mom-and- pop shops still serve the local supply of food. Due to the age structure of the shop owners, a further decline of the classic mom-and- pop stores is foreseeable. Initiatives ( mostly medium ) food wholesalers, in some regions partly to the Renaissance of mom and pop shops. By 2005, the Austrian REWE daughter Billa led small grocery stores under the name "Emma".

Since the 1980s, the classic mom-and- pop shops in Germany are detached from grocery stores, which are operated by immigrants. Today, many immigrants from Turkey have small shops that are reminiscent of mom-and- pop shops. They are called with a wink "Uncle Mehmet shops ". Especially in recent years, these traders have assumed a significant role in the local supply of the population in some districts.

A reversal tried the community Gemmerich (Taunus ) after three years without a store in town. 2009 the municipal council decided the establishment of a small shop business with a baked goods offer on behalf of the community. In other municipalities to establish itself gradually cooperative models, such as in Düren and Barmen. Also from private industry, there are now attempts to revive the mom and pop principle. Thus, opened in October 2011 in Dusseldorf a mom and pop shop with the name " Emma's grandson ," the stages the typical shop at the same time nostalgic and connects with an online store and delivery service.

Miniature replicas of mom-and- pop stores are now popular as children's toys and still be called " small shop ".

Term origin

Brockhaus Wahrig is under mom-and-pop store, " Small retail store; the number of mom-and- pop stores has continued to decline [ after the earlier common names Emma; Aunt Emma, the simple average woman to whom you as a neighbor has a personal relationship, as a contrast to the impersonal self-service stores and supermarkets ] ".

Previously, Emma - Minna - a common term for maid. Heinz Küpper recorded the "Auntie Anne's shop". The word " aunt " is used transmitted several times, for example for " (older) female person ", and it's child and youth linguistically common. Küpper dated evidence of his Aunt Anna and mom-and-pop store with 1950 et seq and 1955 et seq Also, " Aunt Emma" meaning " owner of a small retail business " comes after his evidence from the post-war period.

In this time the decline of food retailers with service drops. The first micro-enterprises were unprofitable becoming not immediately abandoned as a rule, but continued by a family member, usually the wife of the owner, as a sideline operation. The remaining solid companies with multiple employees and often unavoidable cost felt this sideline merchants as " unfair " competition and occupied it with the then derogatory name -intentioned mom-and-pop store. In particular, their lack of professionalism should be stressed.