Can hybrid village stores answer rural Germany’s ‘cry for help’ and fend off far right?

Retail innovation, where people can shop alone after staff have gone, is helping vital community hubs survive

Once upon a time, every German village had its own Tante Emma laden (Aunt Emma shop), a family-run hub of community life where local people bought their groceries at affordable prices and shot the breeze with their neighbours.

But in recent years the loose network of small businesses throughout Europe’s biggest economy has come under huge pressure from staffing shortages, competition from supermarket chains and rising inflation, which the Iran war has again sent surging.