2021-04-12

We really DO build our cities - and surrounding municipalities

The Tinks DIY store that recently opened in Wachtberg (just outside of Bonn) shows what can happen when passionate, dedicated people put their minds to something.

A while back I wrote a post entitled “We build our cities” that focused on several store closings in and around Bonn in the last few years. One example that really hit me hard was the end of the Knauber DIY (do-it-yourself) stores. So you can imagine I was overjoyed when the Mein Markt project started up.

Familiar faces
When the Knauber in Bad Godesberg shut its doors last June, a group of former employees and extremely loyal customers got together to build something to not only replace it, but to surpass it. They got going as a kind of coop that you can join and buy shares in to shop there and support the project. After several months of fundraising and lots of hard, hard work, they opened a location in Wachtberg, not too far from where the Knauber used to be.

And the store is in great hands, as even the manager who was in charge of the Bad Godesberg Knauber has been on board since the beginning and is now running the place. If you go, his name is Dominik - it’s on his name tag.

Great stuff
Their goal is to provide the same high-quality service and merchandise that Knauber was known for, while going a couple of steps further. They want to focus on local manufacturers and service providers wherever it’s practical. Also, they are putting a clear focus on sustainability, including a line of damn plastic products.

Are they as comprehensive as Knauber once was? No. Will they be? That is the goal and I am more than confident they will. They just opened two weeks ago and although their inventory is not quite complete, you already see their potential and the drive to make it. So far, though, they have a good selection of stuff from art supplies to weed whackers and jigsaws - the rest is just a fill-in-the-blanks game.

Anyone can invest - I think
I am no finance expert (especially not in the more arcane German-ic constructs), but it is set up a little like a coop. You buy a kind of membership as a share that gives you benefits like a 5% discount on everything they sell as well as what the Germans call “Genussrecht”. As far as I can tell, it is a kind of share, but you don’t have an actual say in how the company is run. And, if the company does well, you get dividends. I think.

Also, you can invest in the real estate they are purchasing with more significant returns in the future. I think.

Tinks
The project’s original name, Mein Markt, just means “my market” and was great for the project to rebuild something out of Knauber’s ashes, as it were. The store itself is called “Tinks” and is meant to be based on the word tinkering, with a nod to thinking. I am a fan of puns, clever takes and plays on words, but that is a stretch even for me.

But, so far the name is the only thing I am not 100% jazzed about, so that is definitely a good sign.