The roles of local grocery store for the rural community : considering sustainable community development : a case study in Västerfärnebo, Sweden

Sammanfattning: Accessibility to different services like food, education, health and culture, etc. within a community is important to the quality of life of the inhabitants. However, there is a decreasing number of services in rural communities at different part of the world, including Sweden, because of the economic unsustainability. Even though many of the rural inhabitants in Sweden have high mobility and can travel to the other towns to access services, it still brings problems and is inconvenient to many of them. This study specifically focused on one kind of service, rural grocery store. The decreasing number of rural grocery store means many of the rural inhabitants lose their access to food in the local rural community. A qualitative case study compiled of nine interviews was carried out in a rural community, Västerfärnebo in Sweden. It was initiated to investigate the importance of a local grocery store in a rural community. The results of the study are presented with an operational resources framework (PEBOSCA framework), which is usually used for site analysis and construction of sustainability strategies for community development. The results suggested that the stores could be act as different types of resources to the community. The connections between the store and the concepts of third place (a social meeting place beyond work or home) and sense of community were being discussed for sustainable community development. A potential way to develop the store to becoming a better third place was also discussed, so to expand its roles in the community, thus the store could have a higher chance for a better economic income for sustaining itself.