One year real,- Future Store

 As from today, Real customers across Germany can prepare electronic shopping lists and download them to their mobile phone. Handwritten lists will thus become superfluous; the next purchase can be directly planned online at  www.real.de *. Customers whose mobile phones are equipped with an autofocus camera can alternatively scan the bar code on the product packaging and use it for preparing their electronic shopping list. The shopping list can thus be accessed any time from any place. "The 'Mobile Shopping List' represents the first step towards using the mobile phone as a shopping assistant“, said Zygmunt Mierdorf, Member of the Management Board of METRO GROUP. "The rollout of this mobile phone application demonstrates how innovative modern customer service can be. By providing product information on mobile phones or introducing new checkout processes at the real,- Future Store, Real takes a pioneering role in the rollout of innovative retail services".

* only available in German

 The novel holistic concept of the "hypermarket of the future" is well received with the customers. Recent customer surveys have shown that the real,- Future Store was able to further improve in terms of customer satisfaction. Also many new customers were attracted. This excellent result also reflects in the sales figures; on average, sales rose by 15 percent.

 Sustainable developments from the real,- Future Store that have received a positive rating by the customers are also rolled out to other stores. Individual technologies and also complete retail concepts were deployed to other Real hypermarkets in Germany. Concept innovations such as the "Der Meistermetzger" butcher shop or the "beauty & more" drugstore concept have already been rolled out to some 25 stores. Overall, various innovations from the real,- Future Store are to be deployed to around 80 Real hypermarkets.