History of Jounin Kauppa

History of Jounin Kauppa

First Jounin Kauppa

First Jounin Kauppa
Jounin Kauppa back in beginning of 1950's

Jounin Kauppa was established in 1950's, when Jouni Kaulanen had his first food delivery brought by Eino Aho, who lived in Tornio. Order was made by a German tourist, who thought Äkäslompolo should have its own grocery shop. Creator of Jounin Kauppa, Jouni was working as a builder, and he was not really interested to work as a grocery shop owner. Being a builder provided so much better in that time. Regardless, when the delivery came, Jouni created a store venue into his own house, where he started selling groceries first time in 23.3.1950.

Jouni + shop 1979

Jounin Kauppa 1979
Jouni in the picture. The house has just received new stairs.

Originally the vendor was handling cashier machine's tasks with pen and paper. Cold-storage was in the basement, where vendor got to go pretty often during busy spring season. During spring, new people had to be hired to meet demand.

But during quieter times, Jouni was fishing, working as a builder and herding reindeers, as almost everyone in the village had reindeers under their own labels.

In first years, Jouni was upkeeping a shop for the lumberjacks, who were cutting trees whole summer in the village of Luosu. To upkeep this shop, Jouni hired a caretaker for it who suddenly disappeared after two years, and that is when shop for the lumberjacks was done for.

In 1950's. as today, cross-country skiis required a lot of maintenance. For the visitors, it was very popular to land every hill in the area by skis. Skis were made from wood, and they often got broken in downhill skiing. So, there was a lot of work to fix those skis as well. Upstairs of Jounin Kauppa Tallberg created a place to fix skis. Later skis was fixed by the children of Jouni Esa and Tapio in exchange for small sums.

1981 Trade

New grocery store in 1980
Jouni created a new grocery store in 1980. Nowadays it is known as a shopping centre of Jouni, next to the main road.

Originally, Jouni was selling everyday products and food supplies in his store, but little by little as a vendor he started to deliver materials for builders too.

As a professional builder, Jouni knew how to guide and help local builders. He knew all the workers in the area and all the regulations of building. He befriended many of the regular customers, who were also professionals in their own field. Jouni had always someone to ask from, whether he or some of his friend needed help.

1950's store was not only place to buy items, it was a place to meet people. Sometimes Jouni was offering coffee in his house with her wife, Terttu. Terttu had a lot to do, as she was helping Jouni in everyday tasks, and also she had children and cows to take care of.

Jouni was a vendor through and through. He would've sold his own pants if the situation needed to. Once Jouni went one step too far by selling her wife's reindeer boots! Jouni was a good and caring store owner, and when a customer needed good reindeer boots, he knew immediately where to get them.

Jouni's shop 2004

Jounin Kauppa in 2004
Nowadays there is Shopping Center of Jouni.

Every day Jouni was counting the daily cashier and then put the money in an envelope. He marked the amount on the top of it with a pen, and left it outside of the store hanging on the door knob. Every evening, around 19:30 Niskala's bus brought the mail to the village and took Jouni's envelope to the wholesale department, which provided supplies. Eino Aho, who lived in Tornio. This habit was on going until the end of 1970's.

Upstairs of his own home and grocery store, Terttu & Jouni were renting a place for tourists to stay. It was regular habit in the area, everyone was doing it. Every house had their yearly visitors who came year after year to visit and enjoy the spring. During that time, tourist or customer were called guests and they were taken care of like they belonged to the family.

Because of visitors, Jouni never locked his grocery store door, not even for a night. Tourists went in and out when they wanted and locking the door was not an option. Even though Jouni had his store's warehouse inside the shop's entrance, no one never stole anything from him, until 1980's one young man stole a crate of lemonade drinks. Jouni noticed it immediately and chased the thief to the bus. The man had to give back the things he stole, and after that Jouni had to install a lock for his door. Times had changed in Äkäslompolo.

New grocery store was built by Jouni in 1980. He was the main builder, but his son Esa was helping him out with the project. In 1985 Jouni decided to stop being a vendor and his son Esa took over with his wife , Anne. .

Jouni was an enthuastic fisherman all his life. He loved to be in nature, and knew the best spots to pick up berries. His mind rested next to a bonfire, which helped him keep his caring attitude ongoing for his whole life.

In his last day he was fishing at the river. When he came back to home, he was wondering why the trip felt so heavy this time. That same very week, he did over a hundred birch whisks used in sauna, but normally that kind of activity did not take his energy in such a way.

Jounin Kauppa today would impress Jouni. He would be very proud of his grandson Sampo. From SampoHe had very warm relationship with Sampo. When Sampo was a little boy, he loved to be with his grandfather who always had time for the little one. When Sampo was 6-years old, he refused to go to day care and only wanted to stay home. Next to his home was the grocery store and his grandparents.

He was running between these houses everyday many times, and there was so much to do for him. Sampo was listening his grandpa's stories and he followed him wherever he went.

He was involved in burn-clearing the fields together with his father and Jouni. Next to the grocery shop today, at the side of the forest was Jouni's teepee, where they cooked fish they had caught that day.

It was natural for Sampo to start being a vendor and follow his grandfather's footsteps. He was ready to face challenges of his own time.

More about Kaulanen family history here (in Finnish)

A new capter in the history of Jounin Kauppa in 2023

A warm welcome to Jounin Kauppa!

In spring 2023, Sampo decided to sell the shop and concentrate on other businesses. Kesko bought the premises the shopping mall and Linda and Janne Vuollo became the new shopkeepers of Jounin Kauppa. -Jounin Kauppa is their third grocery store. Janne is born in the neighbouring municipality Muonio and had now a possibility to return to his roots. The couple want to cherish and continue the good work of the previous owners and develop the supermarket further. 

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