“You simply have no perspective on when it will continue and you have to feed your family,” says Klaus-Peter Miller. The past year has not been easy for the showman. Because of the pandemic, all the festivals at which he sold sausages, steaks or Kässpätzle have been canceled. But Miller didn’t let himself down, took out a loan and made something very special out of his blue, eight-meter-long showman’s truck.
From showman to mobile mini market
“It’s a rolling regional market,” says Miller. It’s not even six in the morning when he loads the truck with fresh goods in Untermeitingen. But he and his family have to get up early. The market in Kutzenhausen is supposed to open at 7.30 a.m. and the drive there takes a good half an hour, setting up not even included. The mobile mini-market goes to a good dozen locations per week. Most of them are villages that do not have a grocery store.
Corner shop on wheels
“Well, I think it’s great that there is something like this now,” says the first clientele, a man around 40. “It’s especially wonderful for older people who are no longer mobile,” agrees an older woman. Almost everything you would find in a corner shop is in the market. From baked goods to vegetables, cheese and sausage to toothpaste – a lot is organic and comes from regional dealers. But interested citizens have to hurry because the truck doesn’t stay in the same place for long.
Word of mouth advertising
At 9:30 a.m. sharp, the truck drives to Agawang, a district of Kutzenhausen, just under two kilometers away. It takes a good 20 minutes until everything is set up again. “In the evening, there is already a pinch here and there,” says Klaus Peter Miller. “But to be honest, I’m very happy that I can do something again.” Miller hopes its rolling market will be well received. The offer was advertised in village papers, but word has to get around first. But Miller would like something else for the future: that he can be at a folk festival with his truck again.
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