Not only Hubei, but also Ningxia, Chongqing, Shandong, Hunan and other places are vigorously deploying supply and marketing cooperatives, and outlets are also re-emerging.
In our impression, supply and marketing cooperatives are the product of the planned economy era of the last century. At that time, supply was tight, and the existence of supply and marketing cooperatives played a very good role in ensuring supply, balancing circulation and stabilizing prices.
However, with the liberalization of market economy in 1970s and 1980s, private and individual economies developed rapidly, and grass-roots cooperatives gradually withdrew from the market. There are very few cooperative cards, and they are either closed or discarded.
But in fact, the supply and marketing cooperatives have always been there and still have strong vitality, just "low-key". For example, there are now more than 30,000 grass-roots supply and marketing cooperatives and nearly 900,000 service outlets. In the first half of 2022, the total sales volume of supply and marketing cooperatives nationwide was nearly 3 trillion yuan.
Nowadays, with the requirements of rural revitalization and rural consumption quality improvement, "restoration and reconstruction" has been put on the agenda. Then, can individuals use policies to establish or join township supply and marketing cooperatives? How much does it cost?
First of all, supply and marketing cooperatives are divided into different levels, and different levels have different properties.
Some people's understanding of supply and marketing cooperatives must be just a "shop" specializing in agricultural and sideline materials and daily necessities, but it is not.
In fact, supply and marketing cooperatives are institutions that participate in public management. The central government, provinces, cities and counties all have such directly affiliated institutions. Institutions at or above the county level use the establishment of the business, participate in public management and enjoy the treatment of civil servants. Their main function is to invigorate the circulation of rural commodities and promote material exchanges between urban and rural areas.
Supply and marketing cooperatives are ministerial-level units, and the staffing of supply and marketing cooperatives at or above the county level in the whole system has reached 49,000. So, so I think of "state-owned stores" without mentioning the supply and marketing cooperatives, but there are still essential differences.
In addition to the institutions directly under the fourth level, there are also some grass-roots supply and marketing cooperatives and enterprises directly under the supply and marketing cooperative system. These are the "shops" in our impression. Employees generally adopt the employment system and sign labor contracts.
Second, can we join the "supply and marketing cooperatives"?
Franchise chain is a very popular business model at present. Compared with starting a business independently, "joining" can undoubtedly reduce a lot of burdens, especially for those who have no entrepreneurial experience, they can directly use the brand, trademark and management technology of the headquarters and join the business in a short time.
So can the "supply and marketing cooperatives" join?
First of all, in the past, there was absolutely no such thing as "joining" in supply and marketing cooperatives. At that time, the outlets of the supply and marketing cooperatives were equivalent to the nature of "state-owned stores", and the managers and salespersons were "employees" who were paid monthly, regardless of profit or loss.
But it's different now. Supply and marketing cooperatives have become more and more flexible with the development of the times. Many local grass-roots cooperatives have both direct stores and franchise stores, and it is also possible for individuals to join. Taking Mianyang as an example, any unit or organization that meets the membership requirements can apply to the community cooperative, fill in the application form for membership, provide relevant qualification certificates, and then wait for on-the-spot investigation and evaluation. After the investigation, they will be approved to join the community.
For example, I read a report some time ago that Shandong Zouping Supply and Marketing Cooperative has a three-level network of counties, towns and villages. At the county level, it has a distribution center of 20,000 square meters and a cold chain distribution center of 25,000 tons, which is responsible for unified distribution to towns and villages.
At the village level, there are both direct stores and "franchise stores" transformed from villagers' self-operated stores. The total number of village-level comprehensive service institutions reached 1997.
Of course, the so-called "joining" is mostly limited to the town and village level. For those above the county level, it is almost impossible to join, because the function of collecting and distributing at or above the county level still has high requirements for the choice of products.
Taking Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province as an example, three rural direct-operated supermarket chains were opened in September, all of which were led by Hebei Tian Rui Economic and Trade Co., Ltd., and the sole shareholder of the company was Zhengding Chengguan Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Therefore, if an individual or organization wants to join a supply and marketing cooperative, it is best to start at the town and village level, not to mention at or above the county level.
As for 300 thousand, it is impossible to open a township supply and marketing cooperative, and the standards in different regions are different. If it is a small village-level grass-roots cooperative, a high probability of 300,000 is enough, because there is no so-called "joining fee", which saves a lot of expenses.
For example, the village-level supply and marketing cooperative opened by Xiao Liu, a villager in Changshan Town, Zouping, was originally a "canteen". Later, after the transformation, the door of the supply and marketing cooperative was also changed. In addition to being able to operate some goods independently, the only difference from before is that you can enjoy the unified assembly and distribution of county-level supply and marketing cooperatives. If it's just a stock, it won't cost much at all.
However, remind individuals who have the idea of joining. Generally, there are only one or two villages or communities. Those who have ideas should start applying as soon as possible.
Third, are township supply and marketing cooperatives worth joining?
Is the village-level comprehensive service station worth joining? Personally, I think we should consider it according to our own situation. Although the supply and marketing cooperatives may vigorously develop supply and marketing cooperatives in the next step, in essence, today's supply and marketing cooperatives have undergone qualitative changes with the distribution institutions in the planned economy era of the last century. The biggest difference is that the former supply and marketing cooperatives are almost in a "monopoly" position, and shopping is almost their only choice.
Now supply and marketing cooperatives are only a part of the market, and there is competition. They have lost their previous position, and consumers have their own choices about the purchase channels.
Then supply and marketing cooperatives are mostly located in villages, communities or towns. The purchasing power of these places is not strong, and most of them are elderly people. Therefore, if they lack purchasing power, their profits may not be so optimistic, and their pricing autonomy is also greatly limited.
Of course, supply and marketing cooperatives still have great advantages in supply, especially local agricultural and sideline products, which are almost all purchased and sold by the state, omitting some intermediate links and reducing costs accordingly. Take corn as an example. Before, some e-commerce anchors with goods were sold to 6 yuan/Root. If there were no intermediate links, would it still be so expensive? This is the advantage of supply and marketing cooperatives. To sum up, if a village-level comprehensive service organization is set up, 300,000 yuan will definitely be enough, but the advantages and disadvantages are equally divided. While enjoying low-cost purchase, it is also subject to management and supervision, and the decision-making power and pricing power of operators will be weakened to a certain extent, so it is necessary to comprehensively consider the entrants.