It is noon on Saturday and I have just left OK Supermarket in Masvingo, a small town in southern Zimbabwe, where I had gone to buy some necessities.
The supermarket shelves were jam-packed, and there was a wide assortment of commodities, in stark contrast to the situation at early 2009, when there was virtually nothing on most supermarket shelves across the country.
The introduction of the multicurrency regime, which allows shoppers to use international currencies, chiefly the US Dollar, South African Rand and the Botswana Pula, stock levels in shops have manifestly improved, and the biting shortages of three years ago have become a thing of the past.
There was a hive of activity throughout the supermarket as shoppers filled trolleys with various commodities. There was no doubt in my mind that they enjoyed the shopping. I observed that the majority of shoppers were happy, and most looked generally healthy too. They chatted away, small kids cried for toys and chocolates, and most parents did not hesitate to give in.
This is testimony that life in Zimbabwe has appreciably improved. People have relatively higher disposable incomes than three years ago. They eat better, and they have enhanced access to health care. They now lead lives that are substantially less traumatic.
I enjoyed the shopping too. But heading to the till was less exciting. The glee that had been apparent on the shoppers’ faces vanished as they painfully crawled towards the tills, leaning forward and resting their elbows on the trolleys. Babies strapped on their mothers’ backs began to cry; obviously from the humid condition in the supermarket…the generator was evidently struggling to run the air-conditioning system.
I counted ten people in front of me in the queue and, using the clock on my mobile phone, I calculated the average time taken by the till operator to serve one shopper…it was a disappointing 4 minutes! Only two of the ten shoppers had trolleys. The rest had small shopping baskets, and most of those baskets were not full.
I sighed with desperation and remarked to the guy behind me about my observation, and he actually thought our queue was one of the fastest. But why 40 minutes to serve only ten customers and how many customers would a single till operator serve in 8 hours?
The problem lies in the multicurrency system. The system has no doubt brought about the much needed relief, as it helped to stabilize the monetary system and helped to impede the galloping inflation of 2008. But the authorities have done nothing to ensure the availability of small denominations. As a consequence, retailers struggle to find change. The unavailability of change is the principal reason for the queues forming at the tills.
The customer immediately in front of me purchased groceries worth US$40. 33 and he tendered a US$50 note. His change was US$9. 67. But the till operator did not have the 67 cents, so she had to engage in some lengthy negotiation with the customer, beseeching him to buy more things worth 67 cents.
Initially the customer strongly objected to the proposal, arguing raucously that he did not want to be coerced to buy things he did not need. As the till operator tried to explain to him that she had no way of helping, he threw tantrums and shouted unprintable profanities at the innocent lady, who visibly showed signs of tiredness, having dealt with irate customers since morning.
Eventually, realizing that his protests would yield nothing, the disgruntled customer cooled off and agreed to buy the things he didn’t need. But there were not many things whose prices easily added up to 67 cents. So he took some bubble gums, a biro and an extra plastic carrier bag, which all added up to 65 cents. The till operator then printed the receipt, and she hastily shifted her focus to me. Although he knew he had lost 2 cents to OK Supermarket, he didn’t believe that any further protestations would be a worthwhile investment, and so he left.
My turn came, and as sure as sunrise I also left with a couple of items I definitely did not need, and left 3 cents at the till.
So, if the said store is open 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, serving 15 shoppers an hour, making an average of 3c per customer in unpaid change, with 5 tills in the shop – it comes to a monthly revenue of US$432, the average wage of two teachers! It would be impossible to estimate the monthly added revenue to the business of the goods bought under duress.
This is what happens to shoppers across Zimbabwe, day in and day out. It is a double tragedy…valuable time spent in queues and the loss of hard-earned money to retailers. But while these are real grievances, they are rarely discussed in public. Zimbabweans seem to be more concerned about other issues, such as how to make more money, corruptly or otherwise.
source: http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/7699
