A Polish charity that takes care of lonely and elderly people is to soon open a “social store” in Warsaw that will offer low-priced items to people in a difficult financial situation. It is Poland’s second such shop, following one in the southern city of Katowice (pictured above).
The project is being run by Fundacja Wolne Miejsce (Free Place Foundation), a charity with roughly 3,000 volunteers around Poland which has for over 20 years been providing free meals at Christmas and Easter for “the lonely”.
Its “social stores” – the first such initiative in Poland – offer groceries, cosmetics and clothing at affordable prices. The store will also feature a cafe for elderly people to socialise.
Food is expected to cost “no more than 50%” of market rates, with a loaf of bread at 50 groszy (€0.11). Items of clothing will each cost less than 10 zloty (€2.23), with the exception of suits, which come at 30 zloty (€6.70).
Shopping will be restricted to those with a monthly income below a threshold of 1,700 zloty (€380) for those living alone or an average of 1,400 zloty (€313) per person for families. The foundation says that it will “independently consider” each application from shoppers.
“We have good contacts with producers and distributors,” the foundation’s head, Mikołaj Rynkowski, explained in a phone interview. “These are entirely wholesome products – but at more advantageous prices.”
The foundation’s first social store – Spichlerz (Breadbasket) – was opened on 10 December in Katowice. The foundation received the premises in a tender announced by the municipal authorities, which it then took a few months to renovate and turn into a shop.
Rynkowski said that, during the big opening, which featured a pot of vegetable soup to feed 1,000 people, there were “so many people” that he was “slightly worried that this could be the case every day”.
While things “calmed down”, this week the store’s closing time was extended from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the request of customers. The Warsaw outlet is expected to be open till late.
The foundation’s head casts the supermarket as a way of “establishing relationships” with the people it seeks to help. “From my experience real help is when you get to know a person better, when they can trust you and speak honestly; when you become a friend and teacher to them,” he said.
Rynkowski hopes that the new store in Warsaw will open in the coming month. “The premises are in very good shape and will not require as much renovation as in Katowice,” he told Notes from Poland, noting that the set-up will be faster.
The foundation now also has a third location – also in Warsaw, on the right bank of the Vistula River – said Rynkowski. It is in talks with the mayor of Piaseczno, a town 16 kilometres south of Warsaw, about a potential fourth location.
Main image credit: Wolne miejsce/Facebook
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
