In February, Lila Bäcker opened the country’s first autonomous store for baked goods, in Neubrandenburg. The pick-up store is stocked several times per day with handmade products and operates without staff. This new form of cashless bakery shopping will be tested at Sponholzer Strasse 20 A over the next few months. In addition to baked goods, the store also offers hot and cold drinks. The store can be available non-stop. Customers will soon be able to place orders and pay via the Lila Bäcker app as well, the company announced.

“We want to make shopping as easy and convenient for our guests as possible. We chose our headquarters in Neubrandenburg for the German premiere of the Pickup Store. We want to test this modern form of shopping in the coming months near our Mäkelbörger cake factory, to appeal to new target groups such as young people or shift workers. There are no rigid opening times. We can also operate the store with no staff – an advantage in times of acute shortage of skilled workers. However, pickup stores will at best complement the range in our more than 230 branches and cafés, but will not replace them,” explained Viola Kaluza, CEO of Unser Heimatbäcker Holding GmbH.

With a length of six meters and a width of three meters, the new store can be transported by truck to highly frequented locations and connected to supply lines.

“We can open and close the store independently of the operator’s obligations. That is a big advantage. With the round-the-clock operation, we can optimize our sales and returns in order to operate even more sustainably and resource-efficiently,” explained Frank Winter, Head of Sales B2C from Unser Heimatbäcker Holding GmbH.

As one of Germany’s leading branch bakeries, Lila Bäcker employs around 1,600 people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein.

The 18-sqm, rectangular pickup store was developed by BakerSoft GmbH.

Photos: Lila Bäcker