Securing Rural Grocery Stores: Communities Matter.

This article explores the phenomenon of communities becoming involved in sustaining rural grocery stores in Denmark, and it identifies three kinds of community stores. The paper is mainly based on case studies of eighteen villages where local communities have been involved in saving their local stores. In all cases, the community collected funds to purchase and renovate the store’s premises. Two kinds of stores (A and B) largely resemble the original rural store in terms of products and appearance. For category A stores, the community rents out the renovated store cheaply to a private shopkeeper. In contrast, for category B stores, low rent is not enough to attract storekeepers, and the community has had to take on the store’s management itself. In both cases, stores have engaged with a supermarket chain. A third category (C) consists of an independent store where community members have taken on all activities themselves voluntarily. The type of store reflects the size of the village, its customer base, and also, very importantly, the capacity of the local community. In larger villages, “only financial capital” is needed (for buildings of A stores), whereas in smaller villages, the community has to manage the store (type B and C), which demands more effort and capacity. Thus, closures of rural grocery stores can only be prevented by capable and engaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]