The swap shop or free store is a form of constructive direct action that provides a shopping alternative to a monetary framework, allowing people to exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy. Swap Shop Yerevan idea is an outcome of a talk during the Spot The Future workshop, which then leaded to the idea of using the space of the workshop also as a Swap Shop, 2-3 times a week.
During our workshop I managed to miss this entire discussion, if it came out of that space at all… So it sounds great as a sharing initiative and easing access to goods, especially when precarity and lack of cash make it harder for us to buy stuff we need daily.
What I’m curious is if it’s a longer term initiative or a couple of events to see how it works? Is @Nelli on board? will she drive it when you’re back in Berlin? Can we help/ build on this, from a futurespotters approach of supporting one another? That you can only do when there’s a bigger picture, a context that helps answer: why this is happening and how it makes a contribution, who benefits and how it can grow to benefit more etc…
Hey Noemi. I think it’s a long term initiative, cause there are a lot of volunteers that are ready to help in collecting all these stuff. I’m on board, but @Liana is the main organizer.
I like the store concept a lot, thought of doing something similar in Egypt as well, have you put a system for the exchange process? Have you already tried the Swap shop or is it still early on in the process of idea development?
may be vahagn can explain more
I agree it’s really interesting , I think @vahagn can explain more about it .
here is an article about these “borrowing shops” in Berlin , Berlin has alot of stuff going on 
Sure. What we have is a swap shop, or free shop, because people can bring what they don’t need anymore, leave in the shop, and take what they find useful for themselves. This works by itself, with no special regulations, but since I am not in Yerevan right now, I don’t know the latest news. When we opened the shop we had some examples of “free-shopping” or swapping already at the evening of the non-official opening. The plan is to have volunteers who would be there at the swap shop a few times a week, for a few hours, so we can advertise the shop and people will gradually start coming and spreading the message. It is always some flow of people bringing things and people taking things, I saw how it works in Berlin and was amazed by the nice level of balance, so I think it should work the same in Yerevan too. And, I think it can work anywhere, because there are always people who have too much stuff and people who don’t have enough.
Feel free to ask more questions if needed, I will be happy to tell more.
I like this project and I will be happy to see it already realized. Wish you success