Stalls and kiosks will turn on the green light: will products become cheaper

Our self-made opinion poll, conducted among acquaintances, oddly enough, did not reveal any particular joy of consumers on this occasion.

“No, I won’t go to such a kiosk for milk or meat,” said the elderly housewife. “Who knows what they’ll put in there?” Maybe some buffalo? And the general background of these tent cities from the 90s does not please me. There were always alcoholics rubbing and dogs running around …

But since the “dashing 90s”, when retail trade was based on tents and kiosks (and sometimes on cartons and boxes) at each subway, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. And it didn’t change everything for the better. For example, over the years, craftsmen have learned to falsify products in such a way, “chemically” with them in basements and garages, that any scientific laboratory will envy. Sausage without meat, cheese based on palm oil, chicken eggs with pathogens… This is something that is difficult to detect on special control, and is found even in respectable stores. One can imagine what will pour into the trays and tents today! In the 90s, when they traded through “lumps” and pavilions, they did not know anything about tasters, or about the chemical smell of “natural” smoke, or about flavorings. The peasants had surpluses of natural products, which they carried to the townspeople. Now everything may turn out to be, to put it mildly, not so simple …

“Golden” cucumber

Many of the participants in our survey said bluntly: tents and pavilions are yesterday. But the situation with the endless rise in prices needs to be changed. And there are such opportunities. In small forms of management, 40-50% of all domestic agricultural products are produced – good and different. These are millions of tons of the same vegetables. Only they do not reach the counter, small agricultural producers have no direct access to the buyer!

There used to be convenience stores, they worked under contracts with farmers. They were and floated away, they were safely “eaten” by chain supermarkets, which are now in every high-rise building.

Weekend fairs? According to experts, about 15% of real farmers trade there. To get a trading place, you need to have time to register for electronic trading in a matter of seconds. The peasants “from the plow” do not have virtuoso skills to meet such tight standards. And there is often no high-speed Internet in the villages either.

Where should the poor peasant go? At best, for a penny, ship the crop to resellers. And at worst…

The government expects inflation this year to be in the range of 5-6%. The legend is fresh, but, for example, the price tags for onions change every day: 32 rubles per kilogram, 40, 43, 54 rubles … And at the end of December it cost 19 rubles, in just a couple of months it went up by 2.5 times! Cucumbers are sold by the piece: smooth, medium-fruited ones cost 79 rubles a piece, something more decent – 500 scars per kilo.

Recently, the head of the FAS reported to the president that his service managed to “persuade” retail chains not to increase the margin by more than 5%. And that supposedly this agreement on socially significant products is maintained. But whence then such their growth?

Everything has long been clear: there is no competition in trade. According to economist Mikhail Belyaev, inflation is growing mainly from wholesale and retail, these structures, at every opportunity, raise prices, which accelerate food inflation.

It is not possible to restrain price growth by administrative measures, agreements with networks, as it is today. We need an alternative, mass character, competition. In what form – that is the question. And how to fit into this trade process those same small forms of management that give out a good half of all agricultural products?

“Don’t be afraid of speculators”

We continue our survey, only among farmers: how do they feel about the idea of ​​the Ministry of Industry and Trade to allocate space for private owners near shopping centers with preferential rent?

The overwhelming majority say that the government has finally paid attention to small business and with its project (it is still on a voluntary basis) has taken a step forward. The Moscow region farmers’ association is ready even tomorrow to become a pilot project in terms of “tent trade”.

I am interested in the Lukhovitsky farmer Vasily Timofeev: would he put a kiosk with food somewhere in Moscow or in the region?

“Definitely,” the farmer replies. – Such a point could completely feed the farming family, and even 2-3 kiosks will make a profit to expand production.

The issue that matters is prices. We, consumers, expect that with such competition, they will not just crawl, but collapse down. However, when buying farm products, I did not notice that they were economy class or cheaper than store-bought. The arguments of the sellers are always the same: natural, environmentally friendly, what we eat ourselves! Where has it been seen that the best product in all respects is cheaper than store-bought consumer goods?

I share my doubts with the interlocutor.

“Don’t worry about us,” the farmer replies. – Peasant products will find a buyer, the choice is always his. And if you can’t afford it, prices can be lowered, the owner is a gentleman.

The fear that all and sundry will pour into the tent trade and the trade market will turn into an analogue of the infamous Cherkizon is not shared by many farmers. The buyer votes in rubles. “Pseudo-farmers will not last long on the market. At first, there will be speculation, – one of my interlocutors believes, – In the wholesale markets, various dealers will start buying the same vegetables and reselling them in their tents. Let them sell, there is no need to be afraid of this. People will quickly understand the offer. The main thing is that the buyer has a choice.

But farmers are not particularly seduced by such opportunities – and here’s why. The lobby of retail chains in state structures will do everything to “bury” the initiative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, they do not need competitors. “Although time shows that the state needs small and medium-sized businesses. After large foreign companies left our market, sales of some goods fell significantly. There is no one to replace them, except us,” says my interlocutor.

Bring back the collective farm markets!

The attack on small-town markets in Russia began in 2010, when officials decided to close all “wild” trading floors and move the trading peasants to civilized conditions. Needless to say, the “reincarnation” of the markets was successful. Now everything is with marble columns and video cameras. But did the buyer benefit from this?

As the farmers say, a trading place in the covered market (and they are all like that now) costs from 7 to 15 thousand rubles per square meter per month. It is clear why farm products are initially more expensive than those that we purchase in retail chains. Renting a retail space is included in the retail price, and in the end, the buyer pays for everything.

A private trader is especially honored at weekend fairs in Moscow. However, there are not so many of them in the capital either, three to eight in each administrative district, less than a hundred in all.

“But they are not always profitable either,” explains a farmer from Kostroma. – I leave for Moscow on Thursday to start trading on Friday, I lose a day. I return on Monday, also a day down the drain. It turns out that five days a week I go to the fair, where I don’t always get any profit. When is it time to start your own business?

He proposes to revive the collective farm markets, which used to be in every district center or village. Without any modern troubles, without a roof and various beautiful inscriptions. Just bazaars, but in every city microdistrict. All private traders who grow crops could come there. Then it is not necessary to go to Moscow either.

By the way, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has repeatedly stated that it intends to increase the number of agricultural markets, primarily through legislative relaxations. To trade without registering an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity. But it is not yet known how many such markets and when will open. The issue of organization is left to the regional and municipal authorities.

Where has cooperation gone?

It is not surprising that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is trying to change the situation so that retail chains “fraternally” share their areas with farmers. However, the Ural farmer Vasily Melnichenko believes that this is a fixed idea: the way to retail chains is closed to small businesses – no matter how many farmer’s corners and shelves are arranged there. “It’s all fiction,” he says. – There are clear standards for the volume of supplies, quality and size of products. Don’t step aside…”

“The authorities have tightened the screws on small agricultural producers, imposing total control on them,” says Dmitry Valigursky, professor at the University of Cooperation. – And now they say: trade for health wherever you want: at every corner, intersection or at the bus stop. There are 16 million private farms in the country. To release them from control is to violate the state law on the quality of products. Tents and pavilions are not a way out, it is necessary to develop consumer cooperation, unite small consumer and rural cooperatives. They may hold weekend markets, year-round and seasonal.

In the last two or three years, and even earlier, for peasant products, officials introduced strict control – in order to protect the buyer from counterfeit and poor-quality goods. As conceived by officials, literally all agricultural products on the way to the counter must pass through a tough filter – from slaughter (milking) to sale.

It is clear that all these newfangled, as a rule, electronic control systems cost manufacturers a pretty penny, in particular, and for this reason, their products are more expensive than in a store. After all, unlike a large agricultural holding, for a small producer, 50-100 thousand rubles of additional costs for equipment for labeling products is a lot of money, which he compensates by increasing the price.

And what about such control for those who will trade in independent pavilions? What kind of milk is in their bottles? And has pork passed strict veterinary supervision – if it is pork at all?

According to many agrarians, the revival of cooperation could saturate the consumer market with goods and give buyers a long-awaited price reduction.

So that a peasant or summer resident working in the garden knows that even for 30 rubles, he will be able to sell his products to the cooperatives, they will not rot in his garden.

However, there is not a word about cooperation in the program for the development of rural areas. In the state concept of agricultural development until 2030, it is also not mentioned, as if it never existed.

But she was – she is remembered by many in the village. How cars drove around village farmsteads, buying surplus milk, meat and vegetables from peasants at fixed prices. Where has it all gone? And why do the authorities not remember consumer cooperation as the engine of rural progress? Domestic officials calmed down that they introduced the institution of the self-employed, about whom the head does not hurt and who do not ask for any support from the state. But how can such a self-employed person from his garden take a bag of potatoes to Moscow – on a bicycle? And where will he go there – will he throw him on the mezzanine? It is unlikely that the tent trade will somehow radically change this situation …

So it turns out: outwardly, in terms of trade services in Russia, everything is fine. Weekend fairs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Refrigerators, commercial equipment are provided free of charge. Inter-regional fairs, which attracts the peasant beau monde from neighboring regions. Food festivals with the indispensable participation of private traders. And even collective farm markets with marble columns.

Only the number of agricultural fairs in the country has been constantly decreasing in recent years. If in 2010 there were 3483 markets with a million trading places, then in 2021 there are 880 markets left with 220 thousand trading places. And prices in supermarkets are rising. And besides them, there is, in fact, nowhere to go shopping …