Local supply

Local supply is defined in spatial planning and urban planning as supplying the population with goods and services for short and medium-term needs in the immediate vicinity of the home. In the public discussion, the term is mostly narrowed to the supply of food through the food retail trade .

definition

Professional local supplier in Vienna, no groceries

A technical distinction is made between "local supply in the narrower sense" and "local supply in the broader sense":

The “local supply in the narrower sense” includes the “supply of everyday goods, especially food, including services that are centrally located and within walking distance”.
“Local supply in the broader sense” includes a “comprehensive range of goods, ranging from short to long-term needs, but also public and private services (bank, post office, gastronomy, schools, medical care, culture, etc.) ) ".

The further definition thus includes all aspects that are intended to enable the population to participate equally in economic, social and cultural life at an easily negotiable distance from their place of residence. Thus, the provision of adequate local supplies is an essential aspect of the “creation of equivalent living conditions in the federal territory” required in Art. 72 (2) GG.

Local supply facilities in the food sector

The providers of local food supply include food retail outlets of all sizes:

Hypermarkets and supermarkets
Discount grocery store
Supermarkets
Food fachgeschäfte
Delis
Health food stores
Business of the food production sector such as bakeries and butchers
Beverage markets
Farm shops
Kiosks
Gas station shops
Mobile sales points such as market stalls or sales vehicles

Regulatory mechanisms

Traditionally, shops and local supply facilities were located in the local and community centers. In the course of the structural change in the retail sector, inner-city retail spaces were completely abandoned or replaced by facilities conveniently located on the outskirts. This development was initially initiated by the food discounters , now it is also followed by full-range retailers, specialist shops and service providers. This relocation is usually accompanied by an increase in the sales area. As a result, supply facilities close to home are lost, which in particular worsens the supply of people with restricted mobility.

There are different approaches to maintaining an adequate local supply of food, ranging from legal regulations such as retail decrees to action-related retail concepts to funding mechanisms such as city marketing . In rural areas there are approaches to ensure local supply by expanding the range of farm shops and direct marketers or by setting up community or village shops . In addition, there are some retail chains that, contrary to the industry trend, have specialized in setting up shops in small communities.

literature

Rolf Junker, Gerd Kühn: Local supply in big cities . German Institute for Urban Studies, Berlin 2006. ISBN 978-3-88118-420-5 .
Eva Schulze (ed.): Local supply in Baden-Württemberg: a guide with practical solutions . Southwest German Retail GmbH, Stuttgart 2003.