Visit the world’s most advanced supermarket

by Justin Glow on

One of my favorite things to do when traveling abroad is stop at the local grocery store for a quick browse. Usually it’s a quaint reproduction of the mega markets I’m used to back home, with funky products and even funkier labels that seem quite strange to the passing foreigner.

But the METRO group in Germany are going for a different feel with their Future Store market, where shoppers are greeted by a rolling robot and mobile phones are used to make purchases. The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg recently stopped in the Future Store and brought back this video of his experience.

The Future Store, with its “intelligent” meat freezer and automatic wine-tasting machine (which limits you to 6 small samples, naturally) all seems a bit convoluted and dated, like someone designed it based on what they thought the year 2000 would be like back in 1984.

For example, customers must have software installed on their cell phone in order to scan a product they wish to purchase. The phone stores all the scans, then displays a final barcode when the shopping is done. That barcode is then fed into an ATM-like machine that’s used to pay. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have an “intelligent” shopping cart that either scans the items automatically, or has a manual scanner built in? The use of a cell phone here seems redundant, and adds an extra layer of special technology that limits who can shop at the store.

The most advanced grocery store on the planet (according to the Germans, at least) is located in Rheinberg, Germany if you’re up for a visit.

Being in Berlin: The 12 most beautiful cities in the world (according to Die Welt)

by Iva Skoch on

Walking along the last remaining piece of the Berlin Wall on Friday, I was a little disturbed by this billboard advertising Die Welt city guides. I had to take a picture of it.

It says: “Visit the 12 most beautiful cities in the world.”

It lists them:

  1. Barcelona
  2. Berlin
  3. Rome
  4. Paris
  5. Amsterdam
  6. Munich
  7. Venice
  8. London
  9. Hamburg
  10. New York
  11. Vienna
  12. Milan

I realize it’s just stupid ad for city guides, but I found it a little odd that: A) All, but one of the most beautiful cities (New York) are supposed to be in Europe, and B) Four of these cities are German-speaking; three are in Germany. Call me overly sensitive, but that’s a cocky statement if I have ever seen one.

What about Sydney, Cape Town, San Francisco, or Hong Kong, to name a few?

Photo of the Day (03.06.2008)

by Martha Edwards on


Looking at this photo by Corey Wood, don’t you feel like you’re on top of the world? Really, how can you not? The high peak looks like it’s above everything. It’s a very interesting shot, but a precarious one too, as if a few steps forward could plunge you thousands of feet into the deep, rugged terrain.

What peaks have you been atop lately? Share them with us in our Gadling Flickr Pool.

Welcome to “robot” restaurant, Germany

by Iva Skoch on

What do you get when you combine fine German engineering with the restaurant business? That’s right, you get a fully automated restaurant, or a food-serving roller coaster, as some like to call it.

Yes, folks, that’s Baggers restaurant in Nuremberg for you. You don’t need waiters to order food because customers use touch-screen TVs to browse the menu and choose their meal.

There are long metal tracks criss-crossing the dining area and run from the kitchen, high up in the roof, down to the tables, twisting and turning as they go, BBC reports. And down the tracks – in little pots with wheels fixed to the bottom – speeds food. “Supersonic sausages, high-pace pancakes and wine bottles whizzing down to the customers’ tables with the help of good old gravity.”

As far as I can tell, you still have to chew your meal, but give Germany a few more years and they might come up with a robot to do that for you, too.

Hamburg’s oldest brothel closing

by Iva Skoch on

I wonder what it actually means when brothels close because “business is falling.” Does it mean that German men are getting way too civilized and sophisticated to frequent brothels? Doubtful.

Yet, Hamburg’s oldest brothel, Luxor, a family-run operation in the heart of Germany’s premier red light district, is closing its doors, IHT reports.. Business, apparently isn’t what it used to be. They used to have 10 girls, now they only have 4. No word on whether they are all family members.

They are probably getting pushed out by bigger and cheaper competition, some multi-national brothel operation. What a shame. Do you have no sense of tradition and old-school values, people?

Where is Eliot when they need him?