Grocery Story

 I sat and laughed over this commerce (here)in SWR news this AM.

So when you get permission to build a grocery in Germany....there's the sales space and the warehouse space.  The permit will say this....as you get permission from the local building authority.

A number of years ago....LIDL (one of the top grocery chains in Germany) had this idea....why not use daily deliveries more, and convert the warehouse space (say half) to sales space?

In 1990s....this practice started up....without LIDL telling the building authority or getting permission to remove walls.

So they gave an example.....where a 800 sq meter space had a wall removed, and the warehouse was lessened....giving the sales space went up to 1200 sq meters.  

Profit increase?  What they suggest is 10-to-20 percent more sales.

So here's the thing....LIDL got caught.  LIDL paid a fine.

An investigation was attempted....to find who and where this was done...but LIDL said this started such a long time ago....there's just no records.  

The necessity of 'CONTROL'?  I sat and pondered over this.  If you'd removed the beams, or made the building unsafe....I could understand the need for rules and regulation.  If structural integrity was maintained....why get bothered if they added another 200 to 400 sq meters of sales space?

Just an odd story.