Anyone who needs a green break while shopping in downtown Munich now has a new place to go: the Urban Gardeners pop-up store, which has just opened in the town hall on Marienplatz, where Sport Münzinger used to be and most recently Bergson Kunst und Kaffee offered. The brothers Vali and Jakob Kiefl are behind the green start-up. Her family runs a garden center with a café in Gauting.
If you don’t have a green thumb, you can use the touchscreen to ask the so-called “Plant Finder” which plant suits you. The AI also knows how often the greenery needs to be watered and what to do if the leaves turn brown. The focus is on balcony and house plants, plus there are cut flowers, a café and a 3D printer that produces vases and the like.
The project is funded by the Rid Foundation, which helps medium-sized companies to further develop their business model and experiment with digital technologies.
The business is scientifically supported by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. They want to know whether customers accept digital solutions, measure sales figures and the like. The findings are shared with trade, the city and science. The nice thing about the experiment called the “Future Retail Store”: It’s not online retail, it’s where people meet.