“Universal supermarkets”, another expenditure between education and shopping

Some people focus on saving, while others focus on principles and morals.after conscious production and consumption. From now historic purchasing groups to application technology, with local shops and small businesses as a common denominator. In short, alternative consumption.

One of the new features is the “Extensive Supermarket” project conceived by Giampiero Monaco. Primary school teacher. «What does the workshop of a tire dealer smell like? In a barber shop or a stationery store? – he explains – What do you smell in front of a bakery, a vegetable stand or a butcher’s stall? What sounds do we hear?

In other words: Is it possible to buy it in a different way? According to Monaca, it is possible. “These experiences are impossible with large retailers: large markets all have the same smell: the smell of rush, and the constant sound of ads and jingles designed to encourage people to buy – he claims – while small markets are not stores that allow for purchases and selective sensory and relational experiences, which can become part of the educational environment for those who are doing a broad education”.

The project aims to combine education and procurement: “Massive distribution, for example through prize competitions and promotional leaflets, can ensure wide penetration into schools”.

According to Monaca and the children of the “Bimbisvegli Association”, the numbers don’t always add up: “To have a Lim multimedia whiteboard worth about 2,000 euros, you need to have a turnover of 75,000 euros, 10 reams of paper cost 2,700 euros”. «A little girl once exclaimed – Monaca still remembers – “My mother has a shop and if she only spent 5,000 euros on shopping she could give us this monument, do you know how much of a gift it would be?”.

And so the idea was born: “So far we have chosen 16 shops, ensuring the replication of the services of a shopping centre, but with special attention to the sustainability of the products and the guarantee of the treatment of workers – continues Monaca – Fairtrade food and products, artisan bakeries, rural food shops, agro-butchers, educational bookshops, artisan ice cream shops, barbershops, paint shops, DIY, rural pharmacies, but not only: we also have builders, insurance companies, mechanics, tire dealers, dentists”. Given the main educational purpose of the initiative, each girl and boy, whether member or supporter, will receive an account book with a list of participating businesses, also visible on the blog www.bimbisvegli.net, where they will be able to check the amount of each purchase and immediately receive a 5% discount. “Master Monaca emphasizes that the cost of the project must be shared by children and adults, since the goal is to make the little ones aware and responsible for managing the economy and supplies of the home, making them understand where certain services are available, what the bakery and mechanic workshop smell like, how long it takes to change a tire or clean a fish”.

“At the end of the year, he concluded, we will collect the books, the children will separate all the amounts, and all the amounts spent will be added up. In this or that shop, after being examined together, the individual shop owners will endorse a certain percentage, about 10%, by donating to the association”.

Through this system we want to support small and medium-sized enterprises, crafts and local professionals, forming a virtuous circle based on real relationships, with real and functional advantages for everyone – not forgetting, as Monaca concludes – so even learning mathematics can reap the value of real functional and interesting tasks “.