Starting and ending point of the two-day excursion: the REWE Centre in Hamburg-Altona, the ideal meeting point for the group thanks to the spacious catering area.

The former toom was extensively renovated, modernised and converted in 2015. Since then, it has been delighting its colourful customers with its own coffee roastery, fish smokehouse, sausage production, well-maintained service counter and a 400 square metre fruit and vegetable department with around 800 items. Much of this can also be found in the other REWE centres visited. Convenience products made fresh daily, a wide selection of regional products and the themes of organic, regional, vegan and vegetarian products set further accents. They sharpen the company's competitive profile and impress the experts, as demonstrated by the multiple successful participations of the centre teams in industry competitions. Services such as pick-up service, Scan & Go or parcel shop are further trump cards of the Hanseatic REWE centres in the race for consumer favour. Together with the huge product ranges with up to 60,000 items and the additional shops located in the mall, the centres make further journeys superfluous. One-stop shopping instead of a shopping odyssey, so to speak. This also saves time, petrol and therefore money.

Jens Riepe "Our goal is to make freshness a tangible experience for customers," says Jens Riepe, Sales Manager REWE Center National and organiser of the store tour, describing the claim. This is particularly evident at the REWE Center Hamburg-Tonndorf, another former toom store that was extensively modernised just two years ago as a pilot store for the new centre concept. "A colourful flower department, the glass and open chopping kitchen, the sushi bar, the large baked goods department with visible ovens and the so-called workpoints at the service counters provide an insight into the production and finishing processes," says Riepe.