Two rural Põlva County grocery store closures leave locals in tough spot

Last week, Põlva Coop announced the closure of two of its rural stores in Räpina Municipality as of February 1 — one in Leevaku and the other in Veriora. For many local residents, the loss of these stores will hit hard.
On Sunday afternoon, the grocery store in Veriora, a village of 500, was bustling with activity. Among shoppers that day was Kersti, a mother of three, for whom news of the local store's closure came as a shock.
"This store is a very big deal in that the store is absolutely essential," Kersti said. "It hit me like a ton of bricks. It's very sad. I have young kids, and the nearest store is around 15 kilometers away."
Leevaku, where the other store is closing, is located eight kilometers from Räpina. Even so, local residents were equally disheartened by the news of the closure, even prompting them to call an emergency community meeting.
On Saturday evening, some 50 people gathered to discuss the situation.
"We all understand this is a private business," said Räpina Municipal Mayor Enel Liin, commenting on the planned closures. "I understand that the losses keep mounting. But we all need to ask ourselves how we got here, because in 2024, all of Põlva County has been fighting via its local governments against the withdrawal of state institutions, and this is, in fact, the consequence. When public offices, jobs and money disappear, purchasing power inevitably goes down as well."
According to Coop Põlva chief Kristo Anderson, the decision to close their Leevaku and Veriora stores had been under consideration for more than three years already, since both stores have consistently operated at a loss.
"The decrease in revenue stems from the decrease in population," Anderson noted.
"The second factor is changes in shopping habits — quite a lot of purchases are made in bigger towns, where there's a broader selection and often lower prices," he continued. "We've been subsidizing these stores for nearly five years already. Unfortunately, the current state of the Estonian economy is what it is."
Three employees will be laid off as a result of the two store closures.
Closures increase burden
Räpina Municipality, meanwhile, is prepared for an increased burden on its social services, as for many residents, a store located further away will be inaccessible.
"The local government is at a loss here in the sense that every service requires a certain amount of funding, which also means hiring one or two more people," Liin noted. "This is actually a really, really big problem, because the area itself is so big as well."
Seven years ago, Põlva Coop closed down its grocery store in Leevi, but enterprising local residents managed to reopen the store almost immediately. Locals will admit, however, that running the Leevi store is a challenge.
"Opening a store is one thing — keeping it running is another," admitted store manager Eneken Raudsaar. "It's stability. You have to come up with all kinds of clever strategies to attract folks, because every customer is worth their weight in gold. It isn't easy; there's a lot of work involved."
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Editor: Merili Nael, Aili Vahtla