Eckart Moj only has to get on the bus to get a roll from the bakery. He’s been living in assisted living in Karlsfeld’s Prinzenpark west of the train station for five years, and for just as long he’s been fighting for a local supplier in his area: “We feel like we’re being screwed and lured here. Without making sure that we get a place to shop.” We – that is Eckart Moj and the approximately 330 residents of the assisted living facility, some of whom use wheelchairs or walkers. Because of the lack of shopping opportunities, Eckart Moj speaks of “social disregard” for the senior citizens and has therefore founded the “Missing local suppliers” initiative with Renate Röslmair and Claudia Micklich, also from assisted living, and they are supported by other senior citizens.
With a wheelchair and walker in the shopping bus
This Thursday, June 23, at 6:45 p.m., the initiative is planning a demonstration in front of the Karlsfeld town hall to draw the municipal council’s attention to the problem again: “We expect 100 to 150 people,” including residents of the Prinzenpark, their friends and relatives .
After all, the situation is unbearable, says Moj: the pensioners, some of whom are restricted in their mobility, are forced to board a shopping bus to reach the pharmacy, drugstore or supermarket in the center of Karlsfeld. The bus is organized by the investor of the Karlsfeld Bayernwerk site, Erl & Streicher, and the seniors are picked up every Tuesday and Friday so that they can shop in the center of Karlsfeld for about an hour. Thank God we have a bus driver who helps people with wheelchairs and walkers over the bus ramp. But to be honest, that’s an impertinence,” he criticizes. Something has to change about that, Moj is convinced.
Fronts between investors and the municipality have hardened
But the situation is tricky: in 2017, Erl & Streicher found an interested retailer for the site, but he “considered the purchasing power potential in the catchment area to be insufficient,” according to the investor. In order to increase it, more apartments would be needed on the Bayernwerk site, the retailer argued at the time. But the municipality of Karlsfeld did not play along. Because she wants more trade for the fallow land, so that the trade tax revenue can finally flow and the unfortunate financial situation of the municipality can turn for the better. In the meantime, the fronts between investors and the community have hardened.
But Eckart Moj wants to keep fighting. Together with his fellow campaigners, he has already distributed 10,000 flyers in Karlsfeld mailboxes: “We want to make the citizens aware that all supply options are in the east of Karlsfeld,” he says: “In the west, citizens have been fighting for shopping opportunities for 25 years.” Moj also received around 50 positive responses from compassionate Karlsfelder to the mailbox campaign. This should result in a next project, but he doesn’t want to reveal anything about that yet.
“Lured Here and Left Hanging”
Another action has already been approved by the public order office of the municipality of Karlsfeld: the initiative will hang up posters at the four entrances to the assisted living facility to draw attention to the fact that there is no supermarket. Eckart Moj has already come up with a design, namely a witch, like in the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, who points with her finger and above it is the slogan “Lured here and left hanging”.
The Karlsfelder would like at least one interim solution, namely a container supermarket that will temporarily supply the residents of the Prinzenpark until the permanently installed local supplier is built on the Bayernwerk site. Until then, the pensioners have to heave wheelchairs and walkers into the shopping bus – lucky are those who have family or friends who do the shopping. Eckart Moj himself is still very mobile: “But I fight for those who aren’t anymore.”