Put it all together. We looked at how the problems of trade in the countryside are solved

The HEAD of state often emphasizes that the well-being of ordinary people, workers, is an absolute priority, and rural residents in particular. Creating favorable conditions for their lives, providing jobs, increasing wages, developing infrastructure, including retail facilities - all these issues are interconnected and are under the constant control of the President.
Worthy of the best
- it is not for nothing that I repeat: if we lose the village, we will lose the country. Our people, whom we serve in the countryside, deserve the best, - the President said at the Belkoopsoyuz congress, where the problems and further development of the structure were discussed.

At the same meeting, ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO noted that the time has come to develop a nationwide concept in the field of servicing rural residents:
- It is necessary to interest all business entities in servicing the rural population, create incentive conditions. One of such measures is Decree No. 42 signed on February 2 on the resumption of certain benefits for individual entrepreneurs and business entities engaged in retail trade, public catering
, and household services in rural areas . As explained to us by the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade, this document provides, for example, for certain tax breaks and preferences, the opportunity for business entities to buy, take possession of and (or) use real estate in rural areas, to organize retail trade, public catering, provide household services to the population there, without obtaining the consent of the antimonopoly authority, and so on. These and other benefits, renewed by the decree, will be valid until December 31, 2028. It is assumed that they will help develop trade and create more comfortable living conditions in the countryside. Time to fix everything Employees of the State Control Committee are also taking measures to improve trade in the countryside, but in their own way: they respond to customer complaints, go to stores with scheduled and repeated inspections. During raids, they check the availability of HEALTH books from sellers, and documents for goods, and the expiration date of products, and their storage conditions. They look at how widely Belarusian manufacturers are represented on the shelves.  - We check the assortment list of mandatory goods. It happens that something is missing, but these are isolated cases: the retail outlets themselves are interested in having the goods in full, - says the head of the consumer market and services sector control sector of the State Control Committee of the MINSK Region Yana Rogalskaya and emphasizes that there are enough Belarusian goods in rural stores of the Minsk Region, including fruit and vegetable products: - Last year, for example, at this time there was often no fresh cabbage or apples. Now there is no such problem.









Another thing is that the appearance of vegetables and fruits in rural stores sometimes does not inspire the desire to buy them. Moreover, there are no hunters for this product, even if the outlet has no competitors. State control officers note that 90% of such products should be stored in refrigerators. Otherwise, they quickly lose their marketable appearance.

- Therefore, buyers do not want to take them, the store suffers losses. During a recent inspection in the Minsk region, sellers explained that they do not have refrigeration equipment to store potatoes and apples at the temperature conditions required by the manufacturer. We observe the same thing in large retail chains: for example, in two stores it was discovered that due to improper observance of temperature conditions, the products began to spoil, - notes Yana Rogalskaya.

This is why products with expired expiration dates are found in stores in the capital region. Especially on pre-holiday days. Also, KGC employees find goods without documents confirming the quality of the products. In such cases, stores are given recommendations. If they are not followed, the retail facility can be closed and a fine issued. If there are no documents confirming the quality of the products, or unsanitary conditions are found in the store, they can be closed immediately, since the health of customers is at stake.

- Since the beginning of the year, eight organizations and individuals have been brought to administrative responsibility due to failure to comply with the recommendations of the Committee, - the specialist clarifies.
Those selling industrial goods have their own violations. One of the stores in the Minsk region had to suspend operations after a repeated inspection. Its assortment is the envy of everyone: shoes and clothes for children, adults, home textiles and much more. However, many of them do not have a declaration of conformity, there is no product marking with control marks indicating the degree of protection and information allowing to trace the origin of the products.
 - At the same time, the store owner assured us: he fixed everything! He hoped that we would not come a second time, - the SCC employee believes.

Stores on wheels are also checked. In winter, residents of the Minsk region complained to the hotline that they did not wait for the mobile shop. 

 - We promptly find out what happened: the seller got sick, the car broke down or the road was not cleared of snow in time. There are villages with two or three residents, usually elderly, who cannot go to the district center or a nearby store. They cannot be left without food, says Yana Rogalskaya and notes that the work of consumer cooperative stores and mobile shops is improving, although sometimes during inspections there may still be some goods missing, the assortment is not fully presented. A thousand items

Chairman of the Kopyl district consumer cooperative Viktor Smusenok notes: their stores operate in conditions of tough competition not only from numerous retail chains, but also from private individuals. They have to try hard to find something to counter the wide range of products, aggressive advertising, and the system of discounts and preferences.

- Kopyl is located more than 100 kilometers from the capital, so we set ourselves the task of ensuring that local residents have the opportunity to buy everything they need in their city. In total, our district consumer cooperative serves about 54 thousand people in four districts - Kopyl, Soligorsk, Uzda and Slutsk. We try to provide a wide selection of goods in all of our 122 retail outlets, 105 of which are located in rural areas, we set minimum trade markups, organize discount days and numerous promotions, - notes the chairman of the district consumer cooperative.

On the shelves of most local consumer cooperative stores there are not only food products, but also household goods, dishes, hygiene products and stationery. To some extent, these are rural supermarkets. Moreover, the assortment in them is formed by customers – by their demand.

Some employees of the consumer cooperative have been working here since the 1980s, so they remember the times when stores worked in conditions of deficit and managers thought about how to get goods to fill half-empty shelves. And today, in an ordinary rural store there are thousands of items, and somewhere tens of thousands. Of course, you have to fight for the customer, because in every more or less large rural settlement, and especially in the city, in addition to the consumer cooperative, there are retail outlets representing private business . Consumer cooperatives withstand competition with large retail chains thanks to an extensive system of discounts and loyalty to customers. Most stores have established work on request: the buyer can ask for a specific product to be delivered, and it will be delivered in a short time. They rely on a reasonable combination of price and quality, the assortment is wide. What is important: they try to avoid price jumps even in the conditions of inflation. Regular customers appreciate this.
Residents of small villages located far from cities are especially grateful to the consumer cooperative. The mobile shops of the district consumer unions are the only representatives of trade that regularly come to them, bringing the most necessary things. Even if only one person lives in the village, he can be sure that the mobile shop will arrive to him strictly on schedule.

- We serve 132 villages that do not have stationary points. This list includes villages where only one person lives, but even there we have to be. Large retail chains, private traders will never go there - it is not profitable. Sometimes the cost of gasoline, which is spent on the road to such villages, is more than the receipt after the purchases made there, - explains Viktor Smusenok.

To ensure that the mobile shops always arrive on schedule, the Kopyl district consumer society has renewed half of its vehicle fleet over the past three years. This year, it plans to buy another such "store". It is not cheap, but there is no other way to provide all the villagers with the basic necessities. "I agree with the President that no entrepreneurs can replace our work in the villages, and I consider the issue of developing a nationwide concept of service in the villages to be timely," notes the chairman of the Kopyl district consumer society. "I know that such a mechanism for supporting consumer cooperatives as assistance in purchasing mobile shops is being discussed. Plus, the head of state set the task for this store to be improved. There are "stores on wheels" similar to a stationary network: you can go in and choose the goods yourself. Assistance in purchasing mobile shops will be a truly significant support for the consumer cooperative system in servicing the population in small villages. After all, there are district consumer societies where the wear and tear of the vehicle fleet is already significant.
Always with a profit
However, in each region there are enough shops and consumer cooperatives, and private owners, where the work is organized sensibly. There is a profit, there are no complaints from customers and state control employees. For example, such a private retail chain belongs to Anna Shenderuk from the agro-town of Porechye, Grodno district. In 1995, when both rural and many urban retail facilities were going through hard times, she rented the Magistralny store, where she worked for 21 years, first as a seller, and then as a manager. At that time, there was, to put it mildly, not much with goods, she traveled to agricultural enterprises, buying MEAT, fruit and vegetable products. The whole family worked 12 hours a day - my husband and eldest daughter Elena helped. Then they rented, and eventually bought the premises of the former regional household goods combine, opened their own hairdressing salon. Later - also a retail facility in the village of Ozery, two stores in Skidel, one in Grodno. They opened a mini-workshop where they make sausages , cabbage rolls and other semi-finished products, bake belyashi, pies, for which regular customers come. When large retail chains came to the area, sales dropped a little. But gradually customers returned.

- People know that I have been working with agricultural enterprises for many years, we only have chilled meat
, we bring in fresh once a week. Over so many years, we have earned their trust, - Anna Nikitichna is sure. And there are practically no interruptions in deliveries: - We have two working vehicles. If I see that the products are running out, I do not wait for them to bring them. In the morning, I send transport, by lunchtime the goods are on the counter. Yesterday, for example, an agricultural enterprise did not deliver meat - the workers got sick. I ordered from another one so that the workshop would not be left without work. Everything is going as usual. And the employees are happy, they receive good salaries.
The businesswoman notes that her stores have always operated at a profit. Some of the retail facilities were sold over time, leaving two grocery stores, a large confectionery pavilion, two industrial goods retail facilities and her own restaurant in Porechye. Having worked in the retail sector all her life, Anna Shenderuk knows that people come to a rural store not only for groceries, but also to talk and discuss news . And, of course, she knows firsthand the tastes and preferences of regular customers, which is the basis for the assortment.
A 10% discount on a number of goods for vulnerable categories of the population has been extended. 13 large retail chains are participating in the agreement. Since January 2022, when this mechanism was introduced, more than 2 million cards have already been issued, and the total amount of the discount provided is approximately Br65 million. A discount of up to 10% is given to pensioners, disabled people, large families and low-income groups of the population. The products covered by it include bread, FLOUR , oatmeal, pearl barley, dry pasta, beef , pork , chicken carcasses, including broilers, MILK , kefir .sour cream ,cottage cheese , eggs , apples, vegetables and other goods. MART, on behalf of the Council of Ministers, is working on a draft Concept of Trade Services for the Rural Population for 2024–2027 . It will determine the strategy for developing trade in rural areas. The draft is currently being finalized taking into account comments and suggestions from interested parties.

  Anna MASLYAKOVA, Elena IVASHKO, photo - Vitaly PIVOVARCHIK