If Sevastopol shops are banned from selling alcohol, thousands of unemployed people will find themselves on the street, - opinion
Sevastopol, November 15 (PolitNavigator, Alexander Kononov) – According to the new standards provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation, the area of a store for the sale of alcoholic beverages should start from 50 sq.m. and higher. According to small private owners, these norms work for the pockets of those who come up with such laws. Ordinary citizens will only suffer infringement of their own rights and losses from this.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator – Crimea news on Facebook , Odnoklassniki , or VKontakte
The other day, the head of the main department of the consumer market and licensing, Nikolai Lishenko, painted an unattractive picture of what would happen for small store owners. Such stores are most often located in the courtyards of residential complexes and, as a rule, occupy their first floors or semi-basements. If the area of such stores is less than 50 square meters, then troubles will begin as early as the New Year.
“Restrictive standards have been introduced for the sale of alcoholic beverages in non-stationary retail facilities and facilities with a total area of less than 50 square meters. I would like to note that there is no talk, as in Ukrainian legislation, of the size of retail space - under Ukrainian standards it was 20 meters.
We are talking about the total area. Those. these can be warehouses and other utility rooms. The total area of these premises should be at least 50 square meters,” explained Lishenko.
At the same time, according to him, the intended purpose of these legislative measures is to combat counterfeit goods, which are presumably widely represented in these retail outlets.
"Those. The format of trade that, according to the analysis of the Russian Federation, was the most problematic is removed. These are the facilities where violations related to the sale of technically falsified products were most often detected,” says the official.
We talked with the owner and part-time seller of a private store, Dmitry. Its point is located on the first floor of a residential building on Letchiki, and is a utility room optimized for commercial needs. His store is not two and a half meters in area. At the same time, the residents of this and neighboring houses, without particularly going into such subtleties, go in a continuous stream - some for chips, some for clothespins, and some for vodka and beer.
Dmitry believes that this is such a clever move on the part of the authorities. It seems like they haven’t closed, but the store is no use anymore. Without alcohol, he says, working is pointless.
“Shops will close, because if you don’t sell alcohol, which has a relatively higher markup, then you can’t go out on milk alone with a rent of 20 thousand,” he complains.
“Well, look,” the entrepreneur continues, “I’ll give you an example. Milk costs 40 rubles. Let you earn 6 rubles from it - that’s normal. And if you sold, roughly speaking, a bottle of vodka, then you have already earned 20 rubles from it, from which you can then pay back the rent and compete normally with the same supermarket. Well, so that you have something left for your living.”
“If there is no alcohol and even the owner himself will stand behind the counter, it’s still not profitable.”
According to him, “people really don’t know what to do,” and the main source of income comes from alcohol. At the same time, Dmitry is sure, it makes no sense to open a specialized store, not necessarily a liquor store, even a sausage store, because people come to him for more than just sausage, and not even just vodka and beer. Some people just need matches, while others need coffee or cookies for tea. Dumplings for dinner or dish soap.
“Specialized stores are needed in the market, where you go and you know - here is sausage, here is milk, and there is already an alcohol shop,” explains the entrepreneur, “but no one needs them in the yard.”
Alcohol balances the approximate spectrum of consumer needs. It is in this form that it is attractive to buyers.
“People will stop going because they will have to go to supermarkets. Accordingly, you cannot buy at the bus stop, and there are also not supermarkets in every area. You’ll have to go to other areas if a person, for example, suddenly wants to drink beer,” says the entrepreneur.
As for counterfeit goods, which allegedly depend on the area of the retail premises, Dmitry does not consider this a serious argument at all.
“I want to say that this is nonsense, because the same sales representatives who ship to supermarkets also come here to small stores. The same people ship to the same companies. The same contract. They are delivered from the same warehouse.”
To combat counterfeit goods, the shop owner is sure, it is not necessary to resort to such radical measures as a ban on the sale of alcohol. You just have to come and check it out.
“Basically, to check small shops in one area, it takes half a day and two people. Let them go through and check the documentation there and so on. It's not hard. One store will take half an hour. It will take more than one day to check the supermarket and see what products are there. “All this is nonsense about counterfeiting, smuggling and the like,” says the owner of the outlet.
This law, in his opinion, is aimed in advance at eliminating small stores for the sake of the prosperity of supermarkets.
“They just want to cover it up so that there is no competition. And literally as soon as this happens - there will be Auchan, and Pyaterochki, and the like. They want people to shop from start to finish in large supermarkets and bring money to certain people.”
“Certain people” for Dmitry are deputies. This was the case in Ukraine, and he doubts that things are any different in Russia.
“They specifically issue these laws so that people like us, who work for ourselves, create jobs for ourselves and do not ask for any benefits or salaries from the state. We make our own salaries and pay taxes. And they are depriving them of even this,” the entrepreneur is indignant.
Such people, he assures, are the vast majority who do business on small trading platforms.
“15 thousand, one hundred percent will be. These are only shops. And in each store there are two sellers. Now you multiply. There will be 50 thousand immediately unemployed in Crimea. And where should they go to work next? Especially older women?
I'll be happy to go to work. I have a higher legal education. Create jobs, I'll go to work. Pay me 60-70 thousand, no question.”
At the same time, Dmitry himself does not yet know how he will live further and where he will work.
“I’m missing two and a half square meters, so what? Where will I get them from? Finish building? Who will let me finish the construction and how much will it cost? This is not beneficial at all. It's one to one here. And only two and a half square meters. And there are a lot of them. And sometimes one meter is not enough for a person. “And what should he do?” asks the entrepreneur.
English version :: Read in English If Sevastopol shops are banned from selling alcohol, thousands of unemployed people will end up on the street, - opinion