I'm sure that the German retailers could find a way to make a real-time, multi-exchange-rate currency block work in practice.

Even German retailers, which have suffered mightily, are expressing more confidence about the future, Mr. Nerb said.

West German retailers are strictly regulated.

As time goes on, German retailers will have to allow customers to remove purchases from packages and leave the packages at the store.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has circled quietly over German retailers for nearly two years.

Mr. Price sold Fed-Mart to a German retailer in 1975 and was fired soon after.

But German retailers are only beginning to adopt the practice of rapid-fire discounting to move slow- selling wares off the shelves.

In 1959 Breuninger was the first German retailer to introduce a loyalty card.

The deposit on shopping carts charged by German retailers is also common in France.

A German retailer, Aldi, is trying to move in.