“A Self-Serve Grocery Store Helps Feed a Small Minnesota Town”
Rural communities can find themselves limited in their choices for groceries.
In some areas, traditional markets are closing. Small population bases cannot sustain them.
Residents can find themselves compelled to travel to larger cities in order to shop for basic needs.
This can have an adverse effect on the overall economic health of a small town.
Other businesses are stressed. Jobs are lost. Dollars are spent elsewhere.
However, new business models now point the way to new opportunities.
Technologies such as smart phones, fobs, cameras, and scanners can help local markets adapt and find ways back.
Cooperative practices and lower overheads are keys. Business is largely self-service. Through memberships, customers can have twenty-four hour access.
Here is a link to a project in Minnesota:
(Readers may recall my earlier post about the deleterious effects that dollar store chains can have on distressed communities. These new self-serve models may possibly blunt the insidious and adverse economic impacts of dollar stores.)