Dissertation

Old links in a new chain: The unlikely resilience of corner stores in Bogotá, Colombia

Guarin, Alejandro

2009

Overview

This study is an attempt to explain why small, family-run neighborhood stores continue to dominate the food market in Bogotá. Driven by the expansion of transnational chains, a 'supermarket revolution' has swept throughout the Third World, transforming food production and retailing. Colombia has been no exception. Supermarkets have grown considerably over the last fifteen years, and now control half of the food market share. Yet the expected demise of traditional retailers never materialized: in Bogotá, more than one hundred thousand tiendas de barrio are the keystone of food provisioning for the vast majority of the poor. My central argument is that these stores persist because they are part of—rather than obstacles to—market modernization. Through the development of elaborate delivery systems, the food industry has put mom-n-pop stores at the center of its distribution strategy. The role of neighborhood stores varies across different commodities. I examined comparatively the supply chains of fruits and vegetables, beef, rice, and processed foods to identify patterns of production, distribution and retailing. Perishables are traded largely in spot-markets dominated by traditional wholesalers. Neighborhood store owners buy cheap, low-quality produce and meat at these wholesale markets thus transferring low prices to consumers. Processed goods (dairy, soft drinks, cooking oil and rice) are part of much more vertically integrated chains in which the industrial link plays the leading role. My key finding is that food industries, seeking to offset their weak bargaining position against supermarkets, strengthened their links to traditional retailers. The financial resources needed to attend to such an atomized universe are considerable, but they have allowed food processors to position their brands and attend their customers' demand for small quantities and low prices. These findings question assumptions that food systems evolve in any predictable fashion. In Bogotá the paradigm of market modernization based on supermarkets has been shattered by the emergence of an industry-led system of provisioning established around neighborhood shops. Chastised by governments and multilateral agencies for their supposed inefficiency and backwardness, these informal retailers are critical parts of a sophisticated system that ensures the survival of millions of poor consumers.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Agricultural economics / Business to business commerce / Commerce-Business / Economics / Geography / Social structure
• ISBN: 1109449143, 9781109449143