Zibo Zhangdian affordable vegetable supermarkets bring real savings to residents
[Introduction·China Vegetable Network]In recent years, the Zhangdian District Price Bureau has studied and absorbed the advanced experience of other places in building affordable vegetable supermarkets, planned rationally and set up locations scientifically, and by drawing on the management advantages of chain supermarkets, has gradually explored a development management model suited to affordable vegetable supermarkets in the district. As of now, Zhangdian District has a total of 9 affordable vegetable supermarkets, allowing the surrounding residents to truly enjoy the convenience and real savings brought by price benefits to the people.
Prices at affordable vegetable supermarkets
At least 15% lower than the average market price
On December 31, 2015, a reporter came to the Nanding store of Hejiafu Supermarket. The affordable vegetable direct sales area was packed with residents choosing vegetables, and the scene was extraordinarily bustling.
“It's the holiday, so I came to buy some vegetables. This cabbage is 0.39 yuan/jin and potatoes are 1.35 yuan/jin. Not to mention comparing with other supermarkets, it's even cheaper than the big market on the 1st and 6th of each month, and the vegetables are fresh, and we trust the quality.” Sun Aixia, a 56-year-old resident of Weisheng Road Community in Nanding Town, Zhangdian District, said with a smile to the reporter while picking out vegetables.
The reporter learned that since December 2015, haze days have increased, sunlight has been insufficient, and temperatures have continued to drop. Vegetable supplies in many shops and supermarkets have been more or less affected, but the existing 9 affordable vegetable supermarkets in Zhangdian District still guarantee a sufficient supply of a variety of affordable vegetables every day.
“Affordable vegetable supermarkets independently select more than 15 kinds of ‘everyday vegetables’ every day and sell them to residents at prices at least 15% lower than the average price of the same vegetables in 6 major farmers' markets. Only vegetables after these discounts can have our affordable vegetable sign hung below them.” Sun Bogang, deputy director of the Zhangdian District Price Bureau, introduced that each affordable vegetable supermarket also specially sets up a “below one yuan zone”, selecting no fewer than 5 vegetable varieties each day for concentrated sales in that area.
The construction of affordable vegetable supermarkets is a concrete expression of Zhangdian District's practical actions since 2014 to practice the Party's mass line, stabilize prices, and benefit and serve the people. Adhering to “government guidance and enterprise participation”, and by drawing on the management advantages of Zibo Commercial Building and Hejiafu chain supermarkets, it has gradually explored a development model for affordable vegetable supermarkets.
To ensure the accuracy of the preferential vegetable prices in affordable supermarkets, the Zhangdian District Price Bureau specially developed a “price collection and quotation management system”, which collects vegetable prices from major farmers' markets through mobile phone clients every day, and staff review the data and automatically generate a Price Data Statistics Table, which is issued to major supermarkets as a reference for pricing affordable vegetables.
“In order to be closer to people's daily lives, we adopt the approach of ‘tiered sampling points in farmers' markets’. The price collection markets include Longfengyuan and Lijingyuan farmers' markets near high-end residential areas, as well as Gongjiao Binguan, Ruiyuan, Jinta, and Fangjia farmers' markets near ordinary residential areas. We collect and summarize the prices of 40 common vegetables every day to ensure the collected prices are more representative and typical.” Sun Bogang said.
Vegetable discounts
Drive supermarket revenue growth
Speaking of the comparison before and after the construction of the affordable vegetable supermarket, Xing Ye, manager of the Nanding store of Hejiafu chain supermarket, said with a smile: “Since our affordable vegetable supermarket was completed in July last year, average monthly vegetable sales have increased by more than 4,000 kilograms compared with before construction, and average monthly vegetable discounts have reached about 10,000 yuan. But this sign has brought popularity to the supermarket. While customers buy affordable vegetables, it also drives sales of other goods in the supermarket, and the supermarket's overall revenue has risen by 11% compared with before. Although the workload is a bit more than before, with such sales performance, we feel energized doing it.”
“The establishment of affordable vegetable supermarkets has not only brought economic benefits, but also good social benefits.” Sun Bogang said frankly that since their construction, affordable vegetable supermarkets have cumulatively given back more than 3.5 million yuan in discounts to the people, allowing residents to enjoy tangible benefits. They will also play the role of a “weather vane” for stabilizing prices in a market economy environment, with a positive guiding effect on vegetable prices. “Next, we will continue to strengthen guidance and supervision of the construction of affordable supermarkets, promptly publish the addresses, operating varieties, and price information of affordable supermarkets, actively accept social supervision, and let more residents benefit.”
The reporter learned that the Zhangdian District Price Bureau has also planned and laid out affordable vegetable supermarkets in different areas such as Zhangdian urban areas, urban-rural fringe areas, and townships, striving to maximize supermarket coverage and serve the people conveniently over a wider area. From the list provided by the Zhangdian District Price Bureau, the reporter saw that the 9 affordable vegetable supermarkets are respectively the Hejiafu Supermarket Mazhuang store, Hejiafu Supermarket Nanding store, West Er Road store, Hutian store, Kairui Biyuan store, Gongqingtuan Road store, Zibo Commercial Building Supermarket main store, Renmin Road store, and Dongcheng Huafu store, covering the entire urban and rural area of Zhangdian District. At the same time, the price department has also set up a remote monitoring system in the supermarkets, implementing “daily supervision, monthly statistics, quarterly assessment” for the daily operations of affordable supermarkets to ensure normalized supervision and management.
“Farm-supermarket linkage, direct sourcing from production areas”
Ensure high quality and low price of vegetables “To ensure high quality and low prices of vegetables, affordable vegetable supermarkets vigorously carry out the business model of ‘farm-supermarket linkage and direct sourcing from production areas’, and continuously improve the circulation system of agricultural products.” Sun Bogang introduced.
Hejiafu Supermarket established 1 agricultural product professional cooperative union and 3 farmers' professional cooperatives, integrating fresh commodity resources from surrounding districts and counties to achieve production-sales linkage, while Zibo Commercial Building took the lead in establishing the “Zibo Organic Food Association”, set up an organic food website, and absorbed 28 leading agricultural enterprises and farmers' professional cooperatives as members, with 18,000 farmer households joining the association.
“In order to let more residents enjoy real benefits and eat safe vegetables, we added a ‘Things Around the People’ column to community LED displays, promptly releasing to residents information on discounts from major shopping malls and the affordable vegetables and special-price vegetables of affordable vegetable supermarkets, making it convenient for residents to purchase goods, and increasing the coverage of price information broadcast periods, especially during commuting hours when community foot traffic is heavier, concentrating the broadcast of price information from major markets.” Sun Bogang introduced.
At the same time, in order to further broaden the channels for releasing price information, the Zhangdian District Price Bureau, on the basis of opening a “Livelihood Prices” column on Zibo Information Port and promoting the “Zhangdian Market Prices” mobile client, newly opened a “Real-time Prices” column in the Zhangdian Mobile Newspaper, allowing residents to check commodity price information from major markets in the district at any time through the internet and smartphones and other channels, expanding the audience coverage of price information. According to statistics, in 2015, the Zhangdian District Price Bureau cumulatively provided residents with more than 26,000 price inquiry services of various types.
The 12358 price complaint hotline is staffed by dedicated personnel, taking the voice of the people as the first signal, the interests of the people as the first requirement, and the satisfaction of the people as the first standard, responding to every complaint and ensuring every response produces results, promptly and properly handling all kinds of price complaints. As of now, more than 190 price complaint reporting cases and petition complaint cases have been accepted, involving property management, parking, water and electricity, education, medical care, administrative agency fees, and other price and fee issues, with more than 63,000 yuan refunded to complainants for overpayments, and a complaint response rate of 100%.
“Affordable vegetable supermarkets are meant to bring convenience and real savings to the surrounding people. We will continue to increase construction efforts, strengthen normalized management of affordable vegetable supermarkets, expand the audience for the government's price-benefit measures, do good things well, and let more people enjoy tangible benefits.” Sun Bogang said.