In this lighthearted blog series, our very own Jef from Sales and Ian, our Solutions Architect, better known as Thelma & Louise, take you along on their retail road trips. They meet shop owners, managers, and cashiers, listen to challenges, and share insights on industry trends and innovative cash management solutions. Names of companies are changed (to protect the innocent… and for a bit of fun), but the stories are real.
Episode 3 – Döner, Spätis, and a Berlin Plan
Berlin is a city of extremes.
On one side, you have the big players: massive supermarkets, flagship stores, delivery hubs, and chains that seem to stretch endlessly across districts. But running quietly alongside this is a parallel retail universe, one that keeps the city moving when the big lights are off.
If you’ve never been, here’s the quick guide:
- Tante Emma shops are cosy, family-run corner stores, like a friendly pantry at the end of your street.
- Döner-Buden keep Berlin fuelled 24/7 with pita, meat, and salad that feeds half the neighbourhood at lunch and the other half at 2 a.m.
- Spätis (“Spätkauf”) are Berlin’s legendary late-night convenience stores, selling everything from beer to bananas at 3 a.m.
This smaller ecosystem may look modest, but together it makes up a significant part of Berlin’s daily economy. And it runs almost entirely on cash.
That’s why Thelma & Louise found themselves in Berlin this week, meeting with a local cash-management and services provider we’ll call Hauptstadt Handels GmbH. With more than 100 years of experience, they know Berlin’s large retail landscape inside out. But they also saw something else: huge untapped potential in bringing professional cash management to the city’s smaller shops, Spätis, Döner-Buden, and neighbourhood stores. To explore that opportunity, they called on Thelma and Louise to learn more about smarttill®.
As the conversation unfolded, one thing became clear very quickly:
For the smaller retailers, cash isn’t just king, it’s the whole royal family. Transactions are fast, counters are small, and margins leave no room for mistakes. Yet the typical cash-management solutions used by large stores are simply not made for this environment, too expensive, too bulky, too complex.
That’s where smarttill® entered the conversation.
What excited Hauptstadt Handels GmbH wasn’t just the technology itself, but the idea behind it: bringing professional cash management to businesses that are usually overlooked. smarttill fits anywhere: physically, financially, and operationally.
But the most interesting part of the meeting came when they shared how they want to bring this message to life.
Instead of relying on traditional sales pitches, they plan to promote smarttill through social media with short, authentic videos that speak directly to their audience. Real shops. Real owners. Real situations. Content that shows in seconds how better cash control reduces stress, saves time, and protects margins.
Their belief is simple:
Everyone should be able to profit from good cash management.
And if you deliver the right message, in the right format, on the right channel, you hit the nail on the head.
Suddenly, smarttill wasn’t just a product; it was part of a bigger story. One that fits perfectly into Berlin’s hidden retail ecosystem and speaks the language of the people who run it.
As Thelma and Louise stepped back onto the street, döner grills humming, Spätis buzzing, cash drawers clicking, Louise looked at Thelma and said:
“It doesn’t matter how big the store is or how small the counter. Good cash management should work everywhere.”
And that’s the real takeaway from Berlin.
Whether it’s a flagship supermarket or a late-night Späti, a busy Döner-Bude or a family-run corner shop, the challenge is the same: cash needs to be handled right. smarttill adapts to the environment – not the other way around.
