The local currency Galléco was launched in 2013 in Ille-et-Vilaine.
However, its use remains very confidential in the department.
Almost invisible in Rennes, the local currency is trying to develop in other areas such as Redon where the dynamic seems to have begun.
The first, l'Abeille, opened in 2010 near Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
Since then, local currencies have flourished all over the territory since there are now about 80 in France.
After the fad, many of them struggle to exist outside of activist networks.
In Brest, the local currency Heol is thus threatened with extinction.
It's not much better in Ille-et-Vilaine where the galléco (
read box
) is struggling to seduce.
Launched in 2013 to promote local and responsible consumption, the local currency now only has 500 users, whereas the figure rose to more than 2,000 a few years ago.
"We try to get out of the circle of insiders by going to meet people on the markets but it's hard to take", recognizes Frédéric Maymil, member of the Galléco association.
The NOTRe law clipped its wings
It was the adoption in 2015 of the NOTRe law, redefining the competences of local authorities, which stopped Galléco in its tracks.
The department of Ille-et-Vilaine, sole funder of the local currency, then lost economic competence, thus leaving the governing bodies of the association.
“However, it has maintained symbolic support for this citizens' initiative as part of its social and solidarity economy policy,” the community tells us.
But the blow was hard for the association which, in the grip of major financial difficulties, was forced to dismiss the two employees who worked full time to develop the network of members and partners.
Since then, volunteers have been trying to restart the machine with their pilgrim stick.
With the limitations that this implies.
"We lack the vital forces for the currency to develop", indicates Frédéric Maymil.
A dynamic currency in Redon, almost invisible in Rennes
This is particularly felt in Rennes where the galléco has almost disappeared from the landscape.
"No one has paid with it for more than two years," admits Marguerite Bellebon, who runs the Rose Mystique bookstore, a shop that nevertheless acts as an exchange counter for the local currency.
A few steps away, the manager of the organic and local restaurant Le Coucou Rennais has also seen the currency become scarce.
"It was off to a good start but it ran out of steam", confides the trader who saw "150 to 200 gallécos pass last year".
In the Redon sector, in the south of the department, the dynamic is quite different, driven by a few well-motivated activists.
Co-manager of the Culture Vrac grocery store, Amélie Brault has noticed that Gallécos have been circulating more in her shop for the past few months.
"We have reached 220 since the beginning of the month", welcomes the shopkeeper, who joined the approach as soon as her store opened in September 2019. "I found the idea that the money could stay on the territory without going through a bank," she points out.
In the coming weeks, the Galléco association will also move its headquarters from Rennes to Redon, where the winds seem to be more buoyant.
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Instructions for use of the Galleco
The local currency of Ille-et-Vilaine comes in the form of colored banknotes with denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 or 50 gallécos, one galléco being worth one euro.
To use it, you must first join the association and then exchange your euros for gallécos at an exchange counter or through a subscription system.
The tickets can then be spent, but only with partner businesses (restaurants, bookstores, cinemas, etc.) that have signed the ethical charter.
There are about 80 of them spread over the whole department.
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