Self-serve vegetable shop benefiting residents and farmers alike

Housewives nationwide are joking about risking their lives to buy vegetables at supermarkets in the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

But residents of Shiping community in the Yubei district of Chongqing municipality can buy fresh vegetables near their homes, thanks to the opening of a self-serve vegetable shop yesterday.

The vegetables are sent to the shop by local farmers, and visitors to the shop — managed by two volunteers — are residents of the community, said Duan Chengliang, a community official.

The shop covers about 40 square meters. It has a rich supply of cauliflowers, rapeseed, amaranth and cabbages with prices marked on the wall.

After picking their favorite vegetables, shoppers pay with their phones by scanning a QR code. It is convenient and reduces the chance of being infected with the novel coronavirus in an overcrowded supermarket, community resident Liu Zehong said.

The shop is a big draw to local farmers, whose vegetables would otherwise rot in the fields.

Shen Yuchun, a farmer in his 50s, has half a hectare of radishes and amaranth. After the recent closure of a farm produce market in the city, he worried where to sell them.

"Now I am happy to send them to the shop", he said.

Yin Shihui, a 77-year-old farmer, has planted rapeseed in her fields.

"I did not dare sell them outside after the outbreak of coronavirus, and worried my labor would be lost," she said. "The shop will solve the problem."

According to Zeng Jun, the shop does not charge farmers a penny and pays them all money from transactions.