Ulm start-up discontinues service

After just a few months, the start-up Mein Wochenmarkt Online had to admit defeat and discontinue its service. It wanted to deliver groceries from the weekly market to your home by bike, but demand was too low.

At the top of the website you can see the red banner with the sad news: the start-up Mein Wochenmarkt Online has discontinued its service at the end of the year, citing insufficient demand as the reason.

The Ulm-based start-up only launched its service in February last year, so it only lasted ten months. The three founders wanted to make it easier for customers to shop at the weekly market around the corner without having to drive there themselves. Instead, the start-up bought groceries for its customers from a minimum order value of 25 euros and delivered the fresh food to their doorstep by 9 p.m. After two weeks, 250 orders had already been received, 100 per market day would have been needed for the business to be profitable. A radius of 10 kilometers around the weekly market was covered with the e-cargo bike or e-transporter.

Michael Mayer came up with the idea back in 2017. According to him, he and his two partners Marcel Michelfelder and Dominik Kramer invested 30,000 euros in the project. It took three years to develop the service. They quickly received support from local politicians such as the former Lord Mayor, who put them in touch with Sparkasse Ulm and the city. They also received support from the traders at the weekly market themselves: "Of course, the traders also have to deal with the issue of digitalization. Their positive interim assessment has spurred us on," Mayer told the Südwest Presse at the launch of the start-up. However, this was no longer enough in the long term. The start-up discontinued its services on December 31.