It is a model which attracts more and more villages looking for a small local business. Opposite the church of Montgirod (commune of Aime-la-Plagne) with a hundred residents in Tarentaise, the community hall has been converted into a participatory grocery store twice a week for a year. Each resident who wishes to shop there must become a member, and give two hours of their time to the community. “Either as a grocer, or by going shopping, accounting, etc. All that counts in the hours, and when we do less it blocks the account, we can no longer buy”details Véronique, both client and volunteer.
On the shelves, almost the same products as a traditional grocery store. “Basic hygiene products, bulk pasta, rice, quinoa”Véronique list. Bulk is sold in a reusable jar, “we give them away but the goal is for them to come back, to avoid waste.” And members can bring back what they want to expand the displays. Marie, a Marseillaise who regularly vacations in Montgirod, brought Marseille soap, for example. “It's a natural soap made in Marseille, I take it often so I took some for the grocery store. It's going very well because I've brought back three kilos of it several times.”
Tristan Barraux
Bringing the village to life
A business that was missing in the village, without this grocery store the first supermarket is about twenty minutes away by car according to Pascal, another member. “It’s already a fairly lively village with many associations, but there hasn’t been a daily grocery store for around 50 years.” The locals also come there and above all to see people, “we all know each other in the village but it allowed me to get to know several people better”, Rachel says.
Tristan Barraux
“It’s mainly that, conviviality, that people meet, that the youngest and the oldest exchange”adds Sabine municipal councilor and member. “I think it really meant that we all had an attachment to the village. We all want to bring it to life, each in our own way.” The Montgirod grocery store is open Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Participatory grocery stores that the association “Move Your Rooster” helps to set up through subsidies in particular, another has for example seen the light of day in Faverges Seythenex, in Haute-Savoie. Seven projects are currently being supported in the region
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