A Visual Highlight: A Wavy 15-Meter Counter at REWE Kunkel
Use the fresh food counter as a unique selling point
A good 44,000 people live in Memmingen, a small town in the Allgäu region. With nearly 30 different supermarkets—ranging from discount stores to organic shops to large full-service retailers—residents have plenty of shopping options. When Thomas Kunkel took over a REWE store there in 2024—after it had been closed for two years due to renovations—he faced a challenge: “What reason can you give customers to come to you?” With 2,200 square meters of floor space, the store offers a variety of products not typically found in a standard REWE store. For Kunkel, one thing was clear: “Customers definitely expect to find a fresh food counter there.” And even though this is a demanding task in terms of staffing and operations, he wanted to leverage this unique selling point against other supermarkets, which have increasingly done away with fresh food counters.
The S-Counter—an eye-catcher in the store
However, one thing quickly became clear: “We didn’t want to look like the other REWE counters; we wanted to create a visual highlight.” This is because the fresh food counter is located far in the back of the store and is obscured by several columns. As a result, Kunkel and his team opted for a 15-meter-long counter with curved edges. While this design is definitely an eye-catcher, it presented the next challenge: finding the right counter equipment with counter trays. After all, the goal was to maximize the counter’s capacity—especially on weekends—and not waste too much space. With this task in mind, Kunkel turned to his personal contact at PricoPlex, who visited the store while the renovation was still underway to get a firsthand look at the counter.
Custom Counter Design by a Professional
A clean, attractive counter display
Kunkel has deliberately kept the counter design in the background simple, unlike many other REWE stores. He prefers to add accents to the counter itself, using decorative slate panels from PricoPlex and the occasional white display shelf to highlight special products. Otherwise, REWE Kunkel primarily uses counter trays in black and graphite. “The counter display should be clear and visually appealing to customers.” That seems to be working well. Compared to the previous year, Kunkel recorded a sales increase of just under 30 percent at the fresh food counter in 2026.
In terms of the product assortment itself, the fresh food counter at REWE Kunkel in Memmingen is heavily focused on meat. In addition to beef, pork, and poultry, the counter also offers dry-aged meat, which is displayed on PricoPlex decorative panels. The counter’s weak point at the moment is still the cheese section, which also features some deli items. “We’re really noticing here that customers are turning more to the self-service selection,” Kunkel notes. That’s why he plans to explore ways to redesign the staffed cheese counter so that customers will enjoy shopping there as well.
Collaboration as equals
High-quality products
He appreciates not only that the countertop supplier offers innovative solutions in its portfolio, but also the quality of the products themselves. “The trays don’t break easily, and even after heavy use, you can’t tell they’ve been through a lot.” No chipped corners, no scratch marks, no fading of the color. Plus, the products are easy to maintain—after all, they can simply be washed in the dishwasher. “That saves us a lot of time, of course,” says Kunkel, adding, “If I want something good, it costs a little more, but then I get to enjoy it for longer.”
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