Group purchase, mutual aid: the application that recreates local solidarity between neighbors

Why pay a high price for your wood, your wine or your food products when you can save money by buying them together? This is the idea of Mon Pti' Voisinage, a social network launched to recreate mutual aid and solidarity at the local level.

Solidarity Neighbors 12 03 2016

Mon Pti' Voisinage is a platform for mutual aid and group purchasing between neighbors (Credit: Mon Pti' Voisinage)

Each year, a French household spends an average of 8700 euros on food and more than 1700 euros on heating. To reduce these expenses, the social network my Little Neighborhood now offers to make these purchases between neighbours. Fruits and vegetables, meat, wine, wood pellets or even fuel: so many items of expenditure that can be reduced by up to 40% by buying in large volumes.

But the goal is not only to save money: "By buying together, people become actors of their consumption again. They meet the producers, they negotiate and get closer to their neighbors with whom they make the purchase", explains We Tomorrow Morgane Hemery, the platform's communication manager.

Exit virtual networks

"Our goal is to recreate mutual aid between people, to get them out of virtual networks so that they meet in real life." A generous idea that works. Launched in 2014 on the Internet, the platform already has 60.000 users and is growing by 120% every two months.

READ ALSO : Create your own local power network? It's easy, thanks to this platform

Because mon Pti' Voisinage is not just a group purchasing service. Services are also exchanged there: loan of objects, tutoring, computer troubleshooting, plant watering or baby-sitting. To facilitate the meeting, stickers are offered to users to stick on their mailboxes. "Most of these services are offered generously, but they can also be subject to compensation, it's up to you", explains Morgane Hemery, who specifies: "We don't take any commission."

Partnerships with the sharing economy

The application is free, without resorting to the collection of data from its users. It is financed through partnerships with companies in the collaborative economy: Carsharing with Drivy, furniture storage with YesStock or even food with the Hive who says yes and the network of Amaps. "With Mon Pti' Voisinage, you can easily see who is registered on these services around home."

READ ALSO : And you, what do you share? Tell your neighbors with stickers

The platform also receives funding from local authorities. They can use Mon Pti' Voisinage to communicate with citizens. For example, to be alerted to road problems or to conduct surveys. In the event of a natural disaster, communities can also use the service to send SMS alerts.

Only obligation: to register, users must prove their identity. Whether by being co-opted by their neighbours, by providing proof of address or by asking to receive a postcard bearing a code. "It's a security measure that then allows us to move forward together in confidence."

source: WeDemain.fr

Further information :

Crashdebug.fr: In the north, full box for the supermarket of local producers

Crashdebug.fr: Alter-Conso: when a cooperative outlines the economy and jobs of tomorrow

Crashdebug.fr: Better than a shopping center: a cooperative, cultural and solidarity grocery store energizes a municipality

Crashdebug.fr: Four tips to be sure to eat French beef

Crashdebug.fr: The stakes of the Transatlantic Treaty

Crashdebug.fr: The Transatlantic Treaty, a typhoon that threatens Europeans...

Crashdebug.fr: The Transatlantic Market, one more step towards global governance (P. Hillard / B. Poncelet)

Crashdebug.fr: Transatlantic treaty: the Assembly says yes, but with more transparency

Crashdebug.fr: Drugs on our plates

Crashdebug.fr: Soon on your plates…! (By fair means or foul)