Belarusian Villagers Deceived With ‘Food Cards’

Officials cannot clearly explain the situation.

On January 17, large Belarusian retail chains began selling some socially important goods for pensioners, large families and low-income people at a 10% discount. However, not all buyers in rural areas can take advantage of this action.

Three days for everything

Narodnaya Volya looked at how such an initiative works, on the example of the Hrodna region. Through the help of Euroopt - one of the most common distribution networks in the field - you can easily get information on how to use the action.

To do this, you need to contact any store of their distribution network (have a pensioner's certificate, passport, and bonus card with you), write an application on the spot that you want to change the status on the bonus card, which is registered on the website, to social. And within three days the discount on your card will take effect.

Theoretically, everything looks pretty modern. True, there is no excitement yet: in the stores of the Euroopt trading network, one can observe only single buyers filling out the required application.

- It was necessary to warn and explain to people about this in advance, - an elderly man in the queue notices. - And then the winter will pass, and many will not even know that such discounts exist.

Another pensioner complains that she needs to write some paperwork, but she cannot do this without glasses. But the young employees of the store quickly come to the aid of older people.

“We don't know yet…”

The situation is different in rural areas. As you know, in most villages in the country there are only shops of the Belkoopsoyuz trading network. They are the only place where people can buy food.

And this is where the problems begin. In the village stores of the Belarusian Consumer Society in different districts, the store managers were told that they had not even heard anything about the introduction of such a campaign with discounts on socially important goods. By the way, a similar answer was heard in the stores of district centers belonging to the consumer society, and even in the regional city.

It was not possible to find among the villagers those who would know about targeted social support for vulnerable segments of the population.

- We haven't heard about this, - said Mikhail Sashko from the Slonim region. - And the relatives who live in the village did not say anything either.

Uladzimir Trakhimchyk from Halavachy, Hrodna region, remarked without any special emotions:

- We have one store and that one is private, and therefore, in any case, we have no chance to use such targeted support. There were golden times when in the village in one store you could buy bread, ham, and a scythe, and a wash basin ... and almost all the things needed in the household ...

Andrei Hauk, the first deputy chairman of the regional consumer society, could not clearly explain the situation, however, he said that not all retail chains could join the action at the same time. And he advised us to contact the head office of Belkoopsoyuz.

By calling the Belkoopsoyuz hotline, the organization's specialist explained that this program should be launched in their stores within a week, however, only automated stores will be able to participate in it. These are those that have a computer to recognize barcodes on goods. It turns out that many village shops still use only cash registers, and this is not enough to keep records of goods sold with discount cards.

By the way, Belkoopsoyuz has just ordered discount cards for its stores. Perhaps they will appear within a week, then they will begin to accept applications from buyers who have a right for discounts.

So, in fact, many villagers are unlikely to be able to take advantage of 10% discounts on socially important goods in the near future. Unless they go to city shops. True, public transportation today reaches not all villages.