Greißler
Greißler is the mainly eastern Austrian term for a small grocer . The shop itself is often referred to as Greißlerei referred out as a deli or grocery trade. These small shops are comparable to the corner shops in Germany.
history
A grocery store primarily sells groceries and is therefore often referred to as a delicatessen store or as a delicatessen together with the operator's surname, such as Feinkost Maier . Such shops are often run as general stores, in which not only actual delicacies , but also other and more undemanding items for everyday needs are available:
“The Greißler is, seen profanely, a grocery retailer with a sales area the size of a tiny apartment. A grocer, or the Viennese version of the corner shop. It is the most intimate connection between large world trade and the small end consumer. ... Grocery, the word first appeared in the fifteenth century, is, as the official definition once went, a middleman of the perishable. And this trade has always attracted Austrians. "
Another variant of this type of shop were dairy shops, which had specially supplemented the Greißler range with dairy products. Shopping in these shops with the so-called "cover letter" was popular and widespread. This was both in the form of the sporadic letter and payment for the next purchase. With long-known customers, it was also customary to settle the accrued bill at the end of the month.
With the increased prosperity in the 1950s and increased demands of customers, such as shopping in one pub instead of several individual shops and time savings when shopping instead of communicative exchange between the grocer and his customers, the grocery stores lost their popularity. Then came the self-service supermarket concept imported from the USA . As a result of this cutthroat competition between the wholesalers, which subsequently developed into large grocery chains, businesses of this smaller type were no longer economically viable. The development can be observed in cities as well as in rural areas. From 1999 to 2000 the number of small grocery stores in Vienna, Lower Austria and Northern Burgenland fell from 1,494 to 1,387. According to a study from 2006, more than a fifth of all villages in Tyrol do not have their own grocery store.
In the course of the closure of many post offices, especially in rural areas, the grocery stores ( village shops ) have taken over many of the post office functions.
etymology
Theories of origin
The name Greißler can be traced back to the so-called Griesler , who once traded salt on the Wiener Salzgries . ( Gries is to be understood as meaning 'sand, gravel'. Metonymically a place that is distinctive in some respect with a sandy, gravelly subsoil such as a market square, for example.) According to other sources, the word is derived from the Middle High German word grûsz (= grain grain ), from which the dialect word Grauss, which exists in Austria and Bavaria, also gives. Greißler / Greißlerei corresponds to the meaning of the English word pair grocer / grocery, but the words are not related to each other. On the other hand, the word first appeared in the fifteenth century.
Grocery dying
The typically Austrian word Greißlersterben is the pictorial expression understood and used in large parts of Austria for the successive closure of small shops due to competition from the wholesale markets. The fact that such a concept has emerged shows the importance of the matter for the general public.
Change of meaning
Recently, the term grocery store has been deliberately used as a term for shops with quality products. The old word with its original neutral to the advent of supermarkets negative connotation undemanding of one and daily smorgasbord of food and consumer goods acts as a label, paradoxically aufwertend for shopping and great service image. An example of such “better” grocery stores can be found in Bad Sauerbrunn in Burgenland.
Greißler mentality
The term “ grocery store mentality” , which is sometimes disparaging, is used for people who seem to have a narrow horizon . A parliamentary debate in Austria shows that this term has a negative connotation:
"The negative allocation of the word 'grocer' has to be omitted in the House, not because I am a grocer myself, but on behalf of the many thousands of hardworking people who do their work in this profession."
gallery
Greißler in Hernals , 1994 ...
... and in March 2010
General store for supplying mountain villages in Pürgg (excerpt from interactive 360 ° panorama)
Vinotheque and grocery store in Bad Sauerbrunn
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Greißler of, -s / - (esp. Ostöst.): Grocer | Greißlerei die, - / - en (esp. Ostöst.) - Austrian dictionary , 40th, revised edition, öbv & hpt, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-209-05511-4 , p. 283.
- ↑ a b At the grocery store around the corner. Designer Camillo Foramitti, ORF , EA November 21, 1995. From the series Ausflug ins Gestern , 1993–1995. A journey through time to the 1950s and 1960s. ( Excursion into yesterday: At the grocery store around the corner. In: Fernsehserien.de , undated, accessed on August 1, 2018.
- ↑ Getting letters from the grocery store is becoming the norm. ( Memento from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wirtschaftsblatt . March 16, 2010.
- ↑ Richard Groner: Vienna as it was. Vienna 1918.
- ^ Robert Sedlaczek : Das Österreichische Deutsch , S146
- ↑ Parallels to this phenomenon are the self-designations consciously made by socially discriminated persons using the expressions that actually stigmatize them; for example the expression Tschuschen in the case of Tschuschenpower and Tschuschenkapelle or gays and lesbians by homosexuals. (Cf. on this subject Tschuschen in: Oswald Panagl , Peter Gerlich (Ed.): Dictionary of Political Language in Austria. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-209-05952-9 .)
- ↑ The grocery store. In: diegenussquelle.at, accessed on April 17, 2014.
- ↑ Remaraweng Boarisch , accessed October 3, 2012.
- ↑ Stenographic Protocol XXI. Financial Period, April 11, 1984, p. 92; Retrieved October 3, 2012.
Web links
- Grocery die-off continues. In: Ö-Journal.