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Gina Green and Inga Bowyer
(future owners of GermanDeli)
with their German mom, Hildegard

 

     "It's not about the food; It's about the memories!" 

When GermanDeli.com co-founder, Gina Green, uttered those words back in 1998, her older sister, Inga Bowyer, recognized the perfect motto for their fledgling German grocery store.  Gina, Inga, and Inga's husband, Jim Bowyer, knew - first hand - that many people who had once lived in Germany get an overwhelming craving for German specialties from time to time.  And so, the three founders embarked on an amazing adventure into the world of imports, online merchandising, and 'clicks & mortar' retailing.

Inga was born in post-war Germany to a Military father and a German mother.  Together with Gina, sister Diane, and bothers, Mike and Fred the family enjoyed being stationed at several USAF bases in the USA, Puerto Rico and Europe.  Being Military "Brats" while their dad, Fred, made a career in the military had its privileges.  Several summer vacations were spent living with Oma and Opa, their mother's parents, in Germany.   After his retirement from the Military their father moved the whole family to Wiesbaden Germany.  That's where Inga eventually met Jim Bowyer, who was serving in the USAF at the time.  They married in the same church in which Inga and Gina's parents had been married.

"Our German mother was an inspiration for starting GermanDeli," claims Inga.  "She had died the year before Gina, Jim, and I founded the company and we imagined that she would have approved of a store that would sell imported Schwarzwälder (Black Forest) Schinken (ham), juicy Nürnberger Bratwurst, hot and spicy Düsseldorfer mustard, and several hundred other delectable German foods and domestically-produced German-style products." 

In the early years getting the right items on the shelf was a challenge.  The number of German foods brought into the country was very limited.  However, Gina, whose purchasing team acquires products for GermanDeli, was very persistent and soon the company had the largest inventory of German products available in the USA.

GermanDeli.com is the #1 online German food store in the USA and their walk-in retail store in Colleyville often draws customers from hundreds of miles away.