Who actually received the subsidies for community vegetable convenience stores?
This year, Wuhan included the building of community vegetable convenience stores as one of the government's "ten practical matters," and the municipal finance allocated 11.8 million yuan to support and guide the effort, with an average subsidy of 59,000 yuan per store (as previously reported by this newspaper).
Recently, however, 22-year-old university graduate Xu Junyi called this newspaper to report: he opened a vegetable convenience store in Dongxihu District, but did not receive any subsidy, and the small store, open for only 4 months, has fallen into difficulty. He also complained that the uniformly delivered vegetables were priced too high.
He was puzzled: where exactly did the subsidies for vegetable convenience stores go? Why are the prices of uniformly delivered vegetables so high? Who ultimately benefited from the practical matters the government undertook?
Over the past several days, reporters from this newspaper visited vegetable convenience stores across the three towns in an attempt to find answers.
Where did the government subsidies go?
University graduate's startup falls into losses
No subsidy funds arrive in time to help
Xu Junyi graduated this August from a university in Jiangxi and joined the "Mrs. Vegetable" startup project, opening a "Mrs. Vegetable Fresh Food Chain Store" in the Jiahe Garden residential community in Dongxihu.
The store was built by the Wuhan Huichun Famous and Superior Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative. On August 6 this year, Xu signed a "Jiahe Garden Store Transfer Contract" with the Huichun Famous and Superior Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative, took over operations, and paid more than 390,000 yuan in transfer fees, merchandise fees, and other costs.
Xu said that because he did not have enough funds on hand, he first paid more than 330,000 yuan, and borrowed 60,000 yuan from Huichun Company at 15% interest, promising to repay it before November 30. The company also verbally promised to help him obtain a 100,000 yuan interest-free loan.
Xu also showed this reporter a "Mrs. Vegetable Fresh Food Chain Store Voluntary Franchise Operation Agreement." This reporter saw that Article 4 of Chapter 6 of the agreement stated that if the Jiahe Garden store passed inspection and obtained the two honors of "Wuhan Community Vegetable Convenience Store" and "Wuhan Affordable Store," Huichun Company would issue a 12,000 yuan subsidy in two installments. However, Xu said the company had always been unwilling to sign this agreement with him.
It is understood that Huichun Cooperative currently has 141 vegetable convenience stores. As for the 12,000 yuan subsidy, did other stores receive it? During visits, this reporter found that multiple stores reported they had not yet received the subsidy, and some store owners also told this reporter that "you may have to operate for a full year before you can get the subsidy."
However, since opening 4 months ago, Xu's business has not been good. Xu said: "The vegetables delivered by the company are priced too high, so we cannot sell them at a good price, and previously every month we could not make ends meet. Later, as we gradually stopped purchasing from the company, it got a little better. But now I urgently need to pay the rent, and the company will not give the loan or subsidy it promised, and it has also delayed changing our business license. Without a business license, we cannot get a loan on our own either."
Just then, Xu learned from the media that this year Wuhan's municipal finance provided an average subsidy of 59,000 yuan for community vegetable convenience stores, 35,000 yuan for small stores and 70,000 yuan for large stores. "If I had this money, could it help me through this emergency?"
Huichun Company: He does not follow the rules
Agriculture Bureau: Subsidies go to enterprises
In response to the questions raised by Xu, on the 13th, Fu Zuping, president of Huichun Industrial Group Co., Ltd., accepted an interview with a reporter from the Golden News.
First, he showed this reporter a bill - "Jiahe Garden statement of accounts payable to Wuhan Huichun Famous and Superior Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative from August 20, 2014 to November 30, 2014." The bill showed that Xu's Jiahe Garden store had borrowed a total of 60,000 yuan from Huichun Company; owed 1,813 yuan in interest and dry goods payments; and owed more than 34,000 yuan for fresh goods for September and before October 15, with the three items totaling more than 96,000 yuan in debt.
Fu Zuping said that, moreover, the store did not act according to the contract and purchased vegetables on its own. "Under such circumstances, how can we change his business license for him? If he does not follow the rules, how can we give him a loan? He has not even paid off the 90,000 yuan he owes, and if I again guarantee a 100,000 yuan loan for him, what if he runs away?"
Regarding government subsidies, Fu Zuping stated that the Wuhan municipal finance subsidy for vegetable convenience stores is given to the contracting enterprises, not to the store owners. "Of course, if cooperative store owners follow the rules and do well, the company can give certain rewards, generally a one-time subsidy of 12,000 yuan."
According to Fu Zuping, this year the company newly built 89 community vegetable convenience stores, more than 50 passed inspection, and the government subsidized more than 2 million yuan. At present, the company has issued 12,000 yuan in subsidies to each of more than 20 stores.
In response, Hu Tiliang, director of the Market Division of the Wuhan Agriculture Bureau, said that the subsidies are indeed given to the contracting enterprises.
He said that through public bidding, 9 enterprises and professional cooperatives were determined as the contracting units for vegetable convenience stores, and the fiscal subsidies are given to the winning enterprises. Although the subsidy amount is quantified per store, in reality it is calculated as one overall account. As for whether Huichun Company gives cooperative merchants certain rewards or subsidies, "that is a matter for the two market entities to negotiate, and the government will not intervene."
Why are vegetable prices so high?
Delivery prices close to market retail prices
Store owners cannot sell at a loss; residents feel it is expensive
Besides the subsidy, what also worried Xu was the price of vegetables.
Xu said that according to the contract between the two parties, all vegetables in the Jiahe Garden store had to be delivered by the Huichun Famous and Superior Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative and could not be purchased independently. "The prices of vegetables delivered by Huichun are even about the same as the retail prices in surrounding markets. After adding a markup, residents all say my vegetables are expensive, and there is simply no way to sell them."
He provided this reporter with the supply sheet of the Huichun Famous and Superior Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative dated December 8. The supply sheet showed that Chinese cabbage was 1 yuan per kilogram, carrots 3.3 yuan, and lotus root 5.3 yuan.
By checking the official data of the Wuhan Huangjingtang Wholesale Market (secondary wholesale market) and Sijimei Agricultural Trade City (primary wholesale market), this reporter found that on the same day the wholesale prices of the above three vegetables in the two markets were respectively: 0.8 yuan, 2.2 yuan, 4.5 yuan; and 0.4 yuan, 1.6 yuan, 4.5 yuan.
A comparison shows that Huichun's delivery prices were on average 1 yuan per kilogram more expensive than the secondary wholesale market; Chinese cabbage and carrots were more than double the price of the primary wholesale market.
High delivery prices from Huichun Company were not a problem encountered only by Xu's store. Some store owners reported: "For the tomatoes sent by the company, I have always sold them at whatever price they came at, with no profit at all."
On the 12th, this reporter visited the "Mrs. Vegetable" store in Phase II of the Jiayuan Huadu residential community on Gaoxin No. 2 Road. The vegetables in the store were not clearly marked with prices. Upon inquiry, this reporter learned that cauliflower was 2.5 yuan per jin, white radish 1.3 yuan per jin, and lotus root 6 yuan per jin. At a fruit and vegetable store at the entrance of the community, the prices of the same vegetables were 2 yuan, 1 yuan, and 3.5 yuan per jin respectively, all lower than at "Mrs. Vegetable." Two elderly women, Hu Youlan and Chen Shuying, who had lived in the community for many years, both said that "Mrs. Vegetable's" vegetables were generally 5 jiao more expensive than outside.
However, at the "Mrs. Vegetable" Houhu Ecological Garden store, lotus root was 3.4 yuan per jin and cauliflower 1.4 yuan per jin, considerably cheaper than at the Jiayuan Huadu store.
Huichun Company: Logistics costs are high
Agriculture Bureau: Store owners can refuse delivery
According to the Agriculture Bureau's "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Work of Community Vegetable Convenience Stores," the average retail price in vegetable convenience stores must be lower than the citywide average retail price.
If Huichun Company's delivery prices are higher than those of the secondary wholesale market, how can convenience stores be lower than the citywide average retail price?
In response, Fu Zuping said that the company's delivery prices were about 20%-30% lower than market retail prices, but it was also impossible for them to be lower than the prices at Baishazhou Grand Market.
He said: "What the company delivers is pollution-free vegetables that have gone through sorting, testing, and processing, and are delivered to the door, so labor costs and logistics costs are relatively high. If store owners go to the wholesale market themselves to purchase goods, they likewise have to spend labor, time, logistics, and other costs, and the price will also rise." "As for store retail prices, the company also requires them to be more than 10% lower than surrounding market prices," Fu Zuping said.
In response, Hu Tiliang said that Huichun Company's vegetable prices indeed needed to account for logistics and labor costs, and as long as store retail prices were lower than the market average, they were reasonable. Moreover, enterprises and store owners are in a cooperative relationship. If store owners feel for a long time that delivery prices are expensive, they can negotiate with the enterprise, can refuse delivery, and can even "break up." This is a process of bargaining between two market entities.
Link
Converted into a supermarket for several months
Still bearing the sign of a vegetable convenience store
During interviews, this reporter found that some vegetable convenience stores were "not worthy of the name."
On the 12th, this reporter went to the "Mrs. Vegetable" Zirun Mingyuan store on Gutian No. 2 Road in Qiaokou District. Unexpectedly, this store, whose door sign bore the "Mrs. Vegetable Fresh Food Store" logo, turned out to be a supermarket and did not sell any vegetables.
The owner in the store told this reporter that the "Mrs. Vegetable" door sign was left by the previous owner, who transferred the store due to an economic dispute with Huichun Company. After he took over the store several months ago, he no longer sold vegetables and did not cooperate with "Mrs. Vegetable."
Then why still hang this sign? The owner said: "Huichun Company told us to hang it."
In response, Hu Tiliang said that there were indeed cases where vegetable convenience stores switched business or closed immediately after opening. The Agriculture Bureau implements an inspection and undercover visit system, hires third-party institutions to track regularly, and follows the principle of "close one, replace one" to ensure the overall scale of community vegetable convenience stores. According to regulations, the total number of vegetable convenience stores operated by each enterprise cannot decrease.
As for the Zirun Mingyuan store, Hu Tiliang said that the Agriculture Bureau had already canceled the store's qualification as a vegetable convenience store and required Huichun Company to "close one, replace one."