How trade is organized in rural areas by Belkoopsoyuz in the Vitebsk region
People who work the land should not be in need of anything. This is the fundamental position of the President, which he announced in February at a meeting of Belkoopsoyuz. Trade is one of the directions for the comprehensive development of rural settlements.
The correspondent of "VV" studied the issue of ensuring the supply of goods to rural residents using the example of the Chashniki sector of the Lepel branch of the Vitebsk regional consumer society.
The network of this sector includes 20 grocery stores and one industrial goods store in the agro-town of Krasnoluki. In addition, six mobile shops deliver goods to sparsely populated villages. The times when villagers kept livestock en masse and largely provided themselves with livestock and crop products are gone. Now, like townspeople, they buy products for their table in stores and have become more demanding about the assortment in nearby retail outlets. It might seem paradoxical to see onions, carrots, cabbage, packaged milk, eggs, and salo on sale in a rural store – but there is demand for them.
The selection of products in the store of the agro-town of Ivansk was pleasantly impressive: in refrigerated display cases – dairy and fermented milk products, frozen fish, meat semi-finished products, sausages, canned goods – several varieties of each. Groceries, bakery and confectionery products are widely represented, and there are salt, sugar, and vegetable oil. There is a corner for industrial goods. And the prices are the same as in the district or regional centers.
– Of course, we strive to meet the demand of our customers, – say saleswomen Svetlana Vecherskaya and Elena Shitkova. – Rural residents do not have time and it is inconvenient to constantly travel to the city for shopping, and it is also difficult for the elderly. We have everything you need, even "tasty treats". And the most popular goods are bread, dairy products, eggs, sausages, and semi-finished products.
In addition to retail sales, consumer cooperative stores also serve as collection points for secondary raw materials, purchasing ferrous metal scrap, waste paper, and glass containers. Seasonally, they accept surplus agricultural products, mushrooms, and berries.
“We are always close to our customers,” notes Tatyana Shipulya, a leading merchandiser at the Chashniki sector of the Lepel branch of the regional consumer society, “whether it’s mobile trade during holidays or serving a village with only a few residents left.”
More than 150 villages in the Chashniki district, with a population of about 3,000 people, are served by specialized mobile shops equipped with freezers for storing frozen goods. They follow a schedule, visiting their routes twice a week. The furthest village from the district center is 65 km away, but the length of each route is considerably longer.
Friendly relationships develop between the crews, consisting of a driver and a salesperson, and their customers. Elderly women even have their purchases brought to their homes, and necessary medications are delivered from the district center.
“We have very good sales assistants, polite and attentive,” said Ekaterina Nikitichna, the last resident of the village of Borovye. “Whatever you ask for, they write it down in a notebook and bring it next time. I asked for a refrigerator, and they brought it. Doctors visit me, and the local police officer comes by, but the mobile shop comes most often.”
The sales assistants know the requests and preferences of their regular customers by heart.
It is more difficult to predict the quantity and variety of needed goods when summer residents come to the villages for vacation. At such times, trade workers admit, it has happened that in the last villages on the route, the assortment was limited. They took note of this and satisfied the demand on the next visit.
Currently, the only supply issues are with the availability of cigarettes in rural stores. The Lepel branch of the regional consumer society is seeking solutions to this problem.
In rural areas, the tradition of viewing the shop as a kind of information center has been preserved, where people bring local news from all around. Sometimes, debates also take place here regarding more global news. There are examples when shop assistants were elected as local deputies, which speaks of trust.
– Most of our girls are devoted to their enterprise, – says Tatiana Shipulya. – For example, Alla Karpovich from Novaya Zarya has worked in consumer cooperation all her life and continues to work even in retirement. People respect her. Galina Kapitanovich and Lyudmila Alekhnovich, shop assistants from Krasnoluki, possess excellent business and personal qualities. Trade in rural areas is a troublesome and not very profitable business. Nevertheless, Belkoopsoyuz stores constantly join the Agreement on providing a social discount. Thanks to this, pensioners, large families, and low-income citizens can buy food products of 30 types – bread, flour, milk, kefir, etc. – at a 10% discount.