Russia has become a breeding ground for supermarkets

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Get out of the house - no matter what city. Take a look around. Nothing confuses you? Do you not notice the difference with the landscape that was two or three years ago? I'll give you a hint: ma-ha … that's right - … zines. More precisely, supermarkets. They have filled everything around and continue to breed like a cow parsnip in the fields near Moscow.

On my small - forty houses - street 18 (!) Grocery supermarkets. This means, on average, for a store in each residential building, because there are also non-residential ones. Some, I'm not kidding, have two. From one end of the nine-story building - "Pyaterochka", from the other - some kind of "Bill". At the same time, the population is not increasing: there has not been any construction in my area for 15 years and, I hope, is not expected.

"Pyaterochka", "Magnet", "Billa", "Dixie", "Crossroads", "Vkus Vill", "Pyaterochka", "Magnet", "Bill", "Dixie", "Pyaterochka", "Crossroads", " Taste of Will "… This bad song can go on and on. Sometimes some "Olive" or mysterious "28 flavors" wedge in the crowd - but this is the same dull it, with the same dull assortment.

The more stores, the higher the competition, the better the products and the lower the prices - you say, and you will be right. In theory. And practically nothing of the kind. Because not shops, but chains compete with each other. Acting according to the same - not too friendly towards the manufacturer and cynical towards the buyer - scheme. Simply put, they will receive their 50-100 percent markup on goods in any case.

But I am more worried about something else: they kill all living things around. They are destroying the urban environment. For example, there was a large hardware store on a nearby street, where people went for any household need - from a screw to a jacuzzi inclusive. What is in place of the economic one now? That's right - "Dixie". Or a cafe across the street - a rubbish cafe, frankly: sushi, pizza, Sibirskaya Korona, I was there once. But still - a cafe. What is in its place now? "Magnet", of course.

The situation with the bathhouse finished me off - almost my own Koptevsky bathhouse, where I went every ten years, every Thursday, it was something like a district club, where they not only take a steam bath, but, which is no less important, communicate. Several years ago, the baths were put under reconstruction. Do you know what was discovered there first? "Pyaterochka"!

This is not to mention the fact that networks are stifling normal grocery retail as well. My favorite butcher and vegetable stalls are still running, but their days, I'm afraid, are numbered.

But there must be some kind of plan, albeit not a general one (he's not talking about that), but still a plan? Are there any standards? For example, for 10 thousand of the population there should be two such stores, one such, a clinic, a school, etc. It is clear that grocery retail is an immortal and win-win topic, but people do not only eat, they have requests of a higher order - for example screws. Not to mention the bathhouse. And in general - about the variety.

I'm talking about Moscow now, but the situation is exactly the same in any city in the country. And this is a serious problem for small and medium-sized local producers. Networks and networks that operate with gigantic volumes, they do not notice the small producer - not even out of harm, but simply because it does not fit into their technological and logistic chain.

So what if you make wonderful cheeses. But you make them 100 kilograms a week, this is not enough for one store. If you start making at least a ton - come and talk. And how will a cheese maker start producing a ton per week if it is difficult for him to sell even a centner? Because, on the one hand, the networks are not interested in working with him, but on the other, they killed all the small trade that could work with the same small production. They killed without any desire and certainly without making any special efforts - they are not competitors. And simply by multiplying and filling the entire ecological niche, and even in abundance. Large chains work with large agricultural holdings and food industries, but there is simply no room for small ones in this market.

There is such a concept - sustainable development. It includes a lot of different factors, but one of the main ones is diversity. The more diverse the economy - for example, agriculture and food production - the more sustainable the development of a small or large territory. To put it quite bluntly - some network went bankrupt and ceased to exist - nothing terrible happened: the manufacturer has where to sell, and people - to buy, and without it.

Variety is also in the manufactured products. Supermarkets want standardized products with a long shelf life. They, even in season, sell tasteless and odorless plastic tomatoes because it is technologically advanced. And to sell local varieties of the same tomatoes - no. It is profitable to carry Danone products of some network even hundreds of kilometers away, but it is not possible to sell the products of a local dairy factory.

Among other things, this all affects biodiversity - in all our supermarkets we have the same potatoes, the same onions, the same carrots, the same - and international - everything. All agricultural holdings raise approximately the same - also international - breeds of livestock. And local varieties and breeds are not developing - simply because there is nowhere to sell it all. And this is also about sustainable development and food security. Because the higher the biodiversity, the more sustainable the system. Some varieties and breeds will die from some kind of pestilence, but others will remain. Well, or will not stay - if there is nothing left to remain.

I'm not even talking about the fact that many types of products are not available in supermarkets at all. Try, for example, to buy a goose or duck there. Or some parsnip.

I am not calling for declaring war on supermarket chains - they are an important part of the economy. But it is no coincidence that every now and then calls are heard to limit them - either in expansion, or in the time of work. Closing, for example, on weekends - so that other types of trade develop at least a little.

Now it is fashionable to brand cities, create urban identity. Draw a multi-story building. Below - large showcases and a sign "Pyaterochka". Well, or "Dixie", if you like orange more than red. Here is a completely recognizable portrait of any city in the Russian Federation. Anyone.