Fika Without ICA
With this optimistic viewpoint I chose to look into the food stores out of Umeå, aiming to investigate and improve the architectural dimension of one of them, just because it is what we, architects can do. After all, there are many people living out of cities while most of the architecture produced nowadays is obsessed with urbanisation. The prospect of exploring Norrland was very tempting, luring into its vastness, promising a fairytale rural project somewhere in the forest. The Close Examination
If the world around us is shaped merely by the things we see, the food supply in Umeå is a simple success story. The choice of goods is broad, the service is available every day, the society and environment is taken care of, and we are reassured about it through many cute pictures. It works, end of story.
By Piotr Paczkowski
I decided to investigate the "Commons” of the rural stores, with a special interest in their hybrid functions and territorial aspect of their occurrence. And very soon I started to discover that the beautiful picture of commonwealth and prosperity communicated by the supermarket chains have another side, which is difficult to illustrate with a catchy graphics in leaflets, websites or yearly reports. To start with, let’s acknowledge, that almost all the food (around 95%) available in any store in Västerbotten is supplied by one of the three: ICA, COOP or Axfood (Willy’s, Handlar’n). A fraction of stores are supplied by other companies (Lidl, Menigo) or independently¹. As some of the goods may come from the local pro-
ducers, the region is for now truly dependent on the three companies and their business decisions are influencing not just the shopping habits of the people, but unexpectedly transforming the social relations between people. Context from the Archives The number of rural stores have been decreasing steadily since the 1970s, due to the emergence of large-scale retail, inspired by the American models and supported by the political power. Here I would like to focus specifically on ICA, not just because it still controls 60 of 135 food stores in Västerbotten, but also because of its interesting origins and history². ICA started with a goal to unify the supply chain for numerous independent grocery stores present in Sweden in the early 20th century promising easier management for the independent store owners.³ The shopkeepers unified within ICA Retailers Federation and started to collaborate on a uniform strategy and improving their businesses. After the formation of ICA AB in 1938 and founding the ICA Retailers Federation in 1940 the company noted a steady growth. Its ever-progressive attitude led to starting its own ICA Brand (1945), opening the first self-service store (1947),
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the first large supermarket (Tranås, 1963) and ordering a fancy logo (Rune Monö, 1964) which we all recognise. Soon after, in 1966, ICA became the leader of Swedish grocery market and has kept the position since then. An important decision was made in 1972, which was in my view the beginning of the end of the small scale retail in Sweden. In order to compete with COOP, especially in the new residential areas (Miljonprogrammet), ICA introduced a new deal between the company and a future ICA store owner: the ICA Agreement. The ICA store was still (and still is) owned by an independent retailer, but the company started to estimate the business viability of a store and offer financing for the construction and the initial phase of operation, which would be paid off from the earned profit. In practice, an young entrepreneuer could now afford a very expensive supermarket, while ICA was given ie. a permanent right to its location. ICA gained a decision power about which stores they want to maintain and which not. Just one year later, in 1973, the first ICA Kvantum was opened, and 1979 brought the first ICA Maxi, expanding the gap between the small (ICA Nära) and the big player within the same company even further.
The Scale Gap The financial condition of a small and large store is depending mostly on the scale difference itself. For instance, the Ålidhem residential area in Umeå houses around 6000 residents, while there are many villages with just 300 inhabitants. And as in Ålidhem one has a choice between 3 supermarkets, in a smaller village it would be just one. The turnover in a smaller store is just a fraction of the larger one, while the costs of operation are quite comparable. Especially after ICA decided to implement the new retail technologies: digital cash registers, automatic checkout counters, mobile apps etc., the costs of running a store have increased, so it becomes crucial to have a large turnover in order to run an ICA store. From the territorial point of view, it is very difficult or hardly possible to maintain high turnover rates in the hinterland, because the consumer base is much smaller and the prices at the large supermarkets are substantially lower. It is quite unique in Sweden that the products in the small and large stores are exactly the same, and people choose to drive hours to ICA Maxi simply because it’s much
cheaper than their local ICA Nära. They may think it doesn’t matter, because they buy in ICA anyway, but the reality is more complex.⁴
inclusive place for informal meetings between the neighbours. Once the store has closed down, none of that is left.⁶
Looking into the yearly reports of ICA it is very clear that the profits are made in the large supermarkets, and as ICA is now a stock company, the profit is its main objective.⁵ ICA Maxi in Umeå is selling goods for 3 billion 250 million SEK per year, which equals to 650 average rural stores from Västerbotten (5M turnover). To maintain high profitability, ICA has decided that they only want to keep the stores with turnover larger than 10M SEK/year, so 15 ICA Nära from remote places like Angnäs, Balsjö or Överboda will be forced to close down sooner or later.
Within the imminent closures, there are also great things happening. The community on Holmön decided to build and run their own store. A couple from Norråker has replaced and old Konsum with their own Lanthandel, equipped with a great cafe, the best cheese counter in Norrland and Airbnb accomodation. An association from Burträsk is operating the first and only markethall in Västerbotten. Things are changing and people are organising to pursue their dreams, meet their needs and secure a better future for their homelands.
Meeting the People
What is a better alternative? I see a strong potential in collective management and self-organisation of the people. Once a community gathers and asks: „What do we need to arrange this and that in a better way?”, there will be a plenty of ideas about cooperation, resourcefullness and realising their dreams.
During a study trip to Norrland we met some of the store owners from the ourskirts of Vilhelmina, who were forced out of busienss because in the changing conditions. The main problem, as they said, when the store closes is not the store, but the services related to it and its vital social function. The store in the periphery is the only cafe, post office, gas station, liquer store, an informal meeting point, an
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Possible Futures The existing way of organising retail and services in the rural areas seems outdated with increased mobility, changes in demography and advent of internet shopping. The business viability of a rural store is low under the current conditions. It is crucial to begin the discussion from the social point of view and start action from establising a common ground for a rural community. This common place, which in the subarctic climate would be best realised as a building, should be an inclusive, hybrid and adaptive space for informal get-togethers for the neighbours in the area. This could be a community café, a library, a cinema, a workshop, a bar or a dinette, avaialble daily, but for some activities just once a week or upon schedule. The further functions necessary for sustaining life in the hinterland are those bound to the existing stores, like a post office, a gas station, a Systembolaget collection point and a pharmacy. In the smallest localities, the food store could be replaced with a delivery point for remote orders, so that people don’t need to
drive individually to do the basic shopping, but instead may have more time for each other while their shopping is delivered. Those needs could be realised as non-profit collaboration within the community, possibly supported with some public grants. The Best Fika The goals of supermarket chains are not going to follow the needs of people living in the hinterland. They have different objectives focused on increasing their own profitability. For example, ICA teamed up with Starbucks to transform shoping into an "experience" so that a family who drives long hours to the store has an opportunity to drink branded coffee. To make it possible, this individualised consumer lifestyle will be illustrated with plenty of cute pictures talking about friendships and responsibility. Is this really what we are dreaming of? There are currently 12 000 people in Västerbotten who need to drive more than 15 km to the nearest food store, service point or any common facility, and this number will be increasing with the current trends.
Establishing a community place, where the neighbours can meet over a coffee and collect their shopping in just 40 locations would provide the most basic facilities within 15 km to 10 000 residents. The operation costs of these common infrastructure can be close to none, with smart heating and cooling solutions and volunteer contributions from the community.⁷ This task may develop new architecture, but it is also possible to adapt the numerous unused buildings to perform a new function. Self-organising to redesign the basic lifelines vital for sustaining life in Norrland can be a great way to use the best of Swedish qualities in management, collaboration and reaching consensus. It would be amazing to see the Västerbotten region shifting towards stronger local communities and operating in a more sustainable manner, while still remaining as connected and progressive as ever. end ■
¹ Chamber Trade Sweden. (2013). Market Report Food, Focus on the Swedish Market 2013, Retrieved from http:// chambertradesweden.se/wp-content/ uploads/2014/02/FOOD-Market-Report-Sweden–2013.pdf ² Regionalt serviceprogram för Västerbottens län 2014–2018 [Regional Service Programme for Västerbotten County 2014–2018]. (2014). Umeå: Länsstyrelsen Väs- terbotten. Retrieved from http://www.lansstyrelsen.se/vasterbotten/ SiteCollec- tionDocuments/Sv/naringsliv-och-foreningar/foretagsstod/RSP.pdf ³ http://www.ica-historien.se/ ⁴ Forsberg, Björn (2015) The End of Growth - What’s Next? UMA City Talks 1/ AFTER2014, Umeå School of Architecture (Bildmuseet), Umeå, on 27th January 2005. Available at http://www. arch.umu.se/en/events/conferences-symposia/uma-city-talks/uma-city-talks–1-after2014/bjoern-forsberg/ ⁵ ICA Gruppen. (2015). Annual Report 2014, Retrieved from https://www. icagruppen.se/en/rapportportal/annual-report–2014/ ⁶ Westholm, Erik. När lanthandeln stänger [When the village shop closes]. ⁷ For more details please refer to my Master Thesis Fika Commons: Hybrid community centres for Västerbotten’s peripheries available at: http://urn.kb.se/ resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva–108600