Valledupar shopkeepers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the “unfair” competition of neighborhood stores with Ara and D1 stores, which have low prices and attract higher sales.
One of them is Elsi Tobías, owner of ‘Provisiones la 14’, located in the neighborhood of Las Flores, a store that, like many, sells in small quantities and finds it difficult to compare the offers other growing institutions have. points of sale.
They have bigger discounts
“We are suffering a lot because of the issue of chains because in every neighborhood they sell very low prices and we do not have the ability to buy quantity and it has been very difficult for us because the Ara and D1 ours nearby, as well as the Olímpica which also does a lot of advertising,” said Tobías.
By:Valledupar shopkeepers formed a cooperative to buy products on a large scale and reduce costs
According to the woman, the discounts offered by these stores “end” this type of business, which is also one of the main ones affected by high electricity rates. “You really work for the services, we pay 30 or 40% of what is produced in that service,” said the merchant.
The materials
For his part, Horacio Remolina Carrillo also told about a similar situation in his shop ‘Provides La Fe’, in the Kennedy area.
“Starting with rice, they sell it for up to $1,600 a pound and you can only sell it in the store for two thousand or so; milk at $3,900 and in our store at $4,500; The prices of the oil are also very low and the cleaning”, he said.
Although there are more stores in the city, around 4,000, these stores sell a greater number of products and have accepted customers, not only in Valledupar, where the map is finding around 20 Ara stores and another 20 D1 stores, but also in other cities. in the country.
Buying on a large scale, another option
To strengthen the union, shopkeepers must buy on a large scale, indicated by the National Union of Buyers (Undeco) in Valledupar, a union that brings together 400 of almost 4,000 buyers of this type in the city.
This was one of the reasons why they decided to create the Multipurpose Cooperation of Microentrepreneurs of the Popular Economy Cesar (Commep) through which they already buy large packages of rice and other products that reach a point of distribution in the Public Market, where shopkeepers keep their shelves.
They started with rice
“The collaboration was born against the proliferation of large stores and the unfair competition that exists, so it was decided to create a collaboration so that we could buy the products directly from the producer, which ‘ stop mediation. and in that way we will be able to deliver good quality products at a very good price to the shopkeeper,” said Didier Urán, the manager.
“We have been making agreements with Fedearroz, Sabrosón and, even, we are buying rice of very good quality from Badillo producers and it is being distributed in Valledupar stores,” said Urán, who said that this is who that’s what the loyalty economy is all about.
Yovani Santana, director of Undeco Valledupar, agrees that intermediaries make products more expensive from 15 percent to 25 or 30%, which can be reduced when they buy on a large scale directly from representatives.
