The consumer shopping experience is changing rapidly. Innovative stores, multi-channel outlets and new technologies are transforming the marketplace and altering consumers expectations. METRO Group has been at the forefront of this retail technology evolution, establishing the Future Store Initiative, a real-world laboratory for retail technology, at its store in Rheinberg, Germany. For the first and only time in North America, the Future Store will be re-created in a 13,000 square foot exhibit at NRFs 93rd Annual Convention & EXPO on January 12-13, 2004 at New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center.

With the deployment of many new technologies all in one place, the METRO Group Future Store Initiative is already having an impact on traditional retailing. A significant component of the presentation at the NRF Convention is the technology of the Future Store in Rheinberg. In this unique, innovative store of the future the latest applications for retailing are for the first time linked with one another in complex interaction. The innovations encompass wireless data transfer, an intelligent scale that automatically recognizes and weighs fresh produce, electronic shelf labeling, automatic self-checkout systems and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

Partners of the initiative are: METRO Group, the world’s fifth largest retailing enterprise; Intel, the largest producer of microprocessors worldwide; SAP, the global leading provider of business software solutions as well as IBM and nearly 40 other companies from the IT, services and consumer goods industries. The objective of the initiative is to actively shape the future of retailing and advance the modernization of this industry on a national and an international scale.

Retailers, regardless of what they sell, have to leverage new technology to keep pace with changing consumer expectations, said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin. Future Store offers an unequalled glimpse of what the marketplace will look like in the years ahead, and its value as an educational tool cannot be overstated.

Inventory tracking on personal digital assistants carried by store employees and shopping carts using RFID technology that scan merchandise for payment at checkout are major Future Store experiments. Future Store is also testing a whole variety of checkout, in-store information, inventory and shopper comfort technologies. Visitors to the Future Store exhibit in New York will be able to experience these technologies first-hand.

The METRO Group Future Store Initiative underlines the leading role of our enterprise as a driving force for innovations in retailing, says Dr. Hans-Joachim Kvrber, Chairman and CEO of the METRO Group. Together with high-performing partners, we are presenting our vision of retailing in the future. We demonstrate the application of the most advanced technologies at all stages of the value chain an important element in the consistent optimisation of our selling concepts.

Retail’s BIG Show, NRF’s 93rd Annual Convention & EXPO, runs from January 11-14, 2004 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.

METRO Group has been an innovator in employing a powerful combination of wireless equipment and RFID technology that promises a boost in store efficiency, enhanced micro-marketing, and the end of long checkout lines.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world’s largest retail trade association with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet, independent stores as well as the industry’s key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF members represent an industry that encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, employs more than 20 million people -- about 1 in 5 American workers -- and registered 2002 sales of $3.6 trillion. NRF’s international members operate stores in more than 50 nations. In its role as the retail industry’s umbrella group, NRF also represents over 100 state, national and international retail associations.

For more information about NRF and a complete list of programming for the convention, visit our web site at www.nrf.com.