the solution that brings life back to rural villages

A green salad, red tomatoes from the last heat of the year, carrots, apples, farm jars, the famous round-trip dry sausage, a few dozen grams of dried fruit and even toilet paper.

On this October day with the scent of Indian summer in the Pyrenean foothills, Anne’s basket, retired, continues to fill up. At the checkout, Amandine Maisonnier, a nurse in Dun, in Ariège, takes down the prices one by one. The bill comes down to: 26.23 euros. “Do you realize? If I had bought the same things in a supermarket, I would have paid a lot more! Anne exclaims. In addition, they are only local, organic or sustainable agriculture products!”

Eilleen, the librarian, also finds the idea “frankly brilliant. It’s a dream to have a grocery store in our town.” In the village of some 650 inhabitants, located in the heart of the discreet Douctouyre valley, the last business closed thirty years ago. Since the summer of 2024, through the will of the municipality and its citizens, the participatory grocery store L’Aoudouc has brought a wind of renewal.

“Before, residents traveled between thirty and forty kilometers back and forth to do their shopping,” says Catherine Pascual, deputy in charge of solidarity, who also chairs The Dunois basketthe association managing the store. This grocery store is at the heart of the municipal project. Via the municipal bulletin and by email, we launched a survey among the population, who expressed the desire to find a local business which was at the same time a place to meet.” Open three half-days a week, the grocery store relies on volunteers. To do their shopping there, the 150 members of the association must give two hours per month to man the cash register, stock the shelves, look for suppliers or do the accounting. Those in their 70s and over are exempt.

A response to desertification

Since the 2000s, the opening of this type of participatory place has increased. On a national scale, the Bouge ton coq association, which aims to revitalize rural areas, has supported the creation of more than 230 grocery stores of this type. Other actors are also contributing to this momentum, such as the Monépi movement, which calls for 440 citizen businesses – including some in urban areas. They provide a response to the desertification of the countryside: according to INSEE, 62% of municipalities no longer have any businesses today.

“After the Covid crisis, this phenomenon accelerated further,” notes Anne Lascaux, doctor in geography at the Lumière Lyon 2 University. The participants are workers, managers and consumers. The model is inspired by cooperative supermarkets that appeared in the United States in the 1970s. It then spread to France, first in cities, then in rural areas.”

These businesses recreate links in villages where meeting places had disappeared. “Dun is made up of 17 hamlets, it stretches over more than 23 km,” explains Catherine Pascual. Thanks to the grocery store, people who hadn’t seen each other for fifteen years found each other again. It also benefits elders who can no longer travel.” Some customers take the time to chat over a coffee, or to greet the cat Michel, Aoudouc’s mascot, who wanders between the shelves. “Here, I meet people of all ages, who come from different backgrounds,” adds Amandine Maisonnier, who arrived in the village three years ago.

In the village, the Bouge ton coq association played an essential role. “She helped residents set up the consultation process, organize meetings and even gave two grants which financed a counter and two fridges!”, adds, smiling, the deputy mayor of Dun. The municipality fully played the game by transforming the old trash room into a bright room, then offering electricity, water and Internet. “For the rest, it was the members who set up the premises. When it was time to assemble the furniture and shelves, even Paul, the 90-year-old elder, gave a helping hand,” continues the elected official. Above, the store’s wooden sign, made by Stéphanie, a local craftswoman, looks great.

Thanks to the voluntary commitment of residents, quality products are sold without margin and therefore at particularly competitive prices. It is also what allows local farmers to sell their products directly, thus strengthening the financial solidity of their farms. In Dun, two thirds of the products filling the stalls are delivered by 17 farmers located within a 10 km radius. “With participatory grocery stores, an entire local system is being reorganized. They have a real impact on the economic, environmental, political and social levels,” estimates Camille Subra, of the Bouge ton coq association.

Much more than a meeting place

About a hundred kilometers away, in the Tarn village of Fiac, the involvement of some of the 920 inhabitants is also working miracles. After taking over the café in 2019, they opened a participatory grocery store last spring. In the building which houses the postal relay, Fiacois flock to have an aperitif, play a board game, fill the fridge or attend a show. At the associative café, prices have been set so as not to exclude anyone – count one euro for a coffee as a balloon of red. Every Friday evening, members take turns cooking. “If people ask, they can pay half the bill. This is done discreetly since we pay online while hiding the amount,” explains Claudine, treasurer of the association. “In our village, there is everything, beautiful people, ugly people, rich people and broke people. Here, everyone is on an equal footing,” insists his colleague, Catherine Valmalette.

At the grocery store, people in precarious situations benefit from specific help. They just have to send their complementary health insurance certificate to an email address to which only four people have access. “Every month, we credit their account with forty euros per adult and twenty euros per child. Anonymity is an essential condition for this to work because, in the villages, poverty is more hidden.” In Fiac, seven adults and one child benefit from this solidarity system which is part of the logic of social security for food. Dun’s team is also considering setting up a similar system. In the meantime, she is working on the upcoming opening of a new place which will house the grocery store, a community café and even a restaurant. Citizen, of course.