Neighbourhood trade-stores, or small scale retail outlets specialising in domestic provisions sold in small quantities, are common features of residential landscapes in developing countries. While these shops are fixtures in the everyday micro-geographies of urban places, little is known as to how they are economically and socially bound up with the neighbourhoods in which they are situated and, in turn, how these linkages influence the day-to-day life circumstances of local people. Through such a local-level investigation utilising multiple qualitative methods, I examine the intra-neighbourhood economic and social roles of small trade-stores in an urban neighbourhood in Cochabamba, Bolivia. My analysis reveals that trade-stores were a key influence on the welfare of neighbourhood residents. Economically, these shops functioned as safeguards for family economies by providing multidimensional material support. Socially, trade-stores acted as mechanisms for informal social control, nodes of local information exchange, and sources of local social opportunities and social support.

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