From corner-shop to supermarket

Until the 1950s, groceries were bought at the shop around the corner. Usually a smaller shop with a counter offering a simple range for everyday needs, neatly presented on shelves behind it. You placed your order with the friendly serving person in the white overall. Village gossip included. It was all very nice. And very cumbersome. The idea of making the food retail trade much simpler spread into Austria from the mid-1950s. Retailers with vision founded new retail chains.

Joint purchasing, simpler delivery and storage solutions, for example using roll containers. And self-service. These new organisations were called ADEG, Spar and Billa. Many suppliers and some retailers were not open to the trend. Defended themselves. The Rauch's saw the opportunities. "My father read about it in the newspaper over breakfast. The three young Drexel brothers from the flour shop in Dornbirn had created the SPAR chain with 70 retailers in Vorarlberg in November 1957, remembers Franz Rauch. A few weeks later, Eduard Rauch travelled to Dornbirn with his 17-year-old son. They met Luis Drexel in the small office of the flour shop and agreed to work together. Good ideas took root.

The new retail chains grew rapidly. And in Austria Rauch grew with them.

New forms of trade revolutionize food retail: Self-service in the shop and centralised delivery instead of individual deliveries by suppliers