What ails retail in Kenya?

Another retailer bites the dust. Such a simple business why can’t we get our heads around it?

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Taxes. You can buy something worth 100 bob in a supermarket. The profit from that item is maybe 3 bob or 2 bob. The supermarket is supposed to pay salaries, rent, logistics, marketing, furniture and fittings, software, hardware and so on. The margins are very thin and the business relies on selling to many people just to make modest profit. After all that, the taxman wants his taxes. Remember that all this is happening with stiff competition from other retailers. The economy is also not doing too well so most people are only buying essentials. When you add mismanagement and corruption by those running the retail chains into the mix, the business cannot survive. If 1,000 people buy a loaf of bread and you are making even 10 bob per loaf of bread, your profit before other costs is just 10k.

Maybe, just Maybe, these retail outlets should start giving credit facilities, like the one’s we get at the local kiosk.
Kwa mama mwangi uko na kitabu, which you settle on the 15th and end month, mama mboga yake una settle weekly.
In .ke, there’re so many small and medium kiosk/ outlets that rivals big supermarkets. Which isn’t the case in most developed world.

Supermarket profit margins are extremely thin.

If you zig instead of zagging you are out of business.

Margins are 2%. kidogo sana

As per state of economy many Kenyans cannot afford to buy from supermarkets because of high taxes of essential goods

For these big retails to succeed, one need to eliminate the small and medium retail outlets in the estates.

But this is true of supermarkets in all countries. Even the great Walmart has thin margins. Why can’t we hack those margins?

Naivas, Quickmart, Carrefour, Magunas are doing well.

Too many peasants kama @Wanaruona anachukua vitu na deni kwa duka ya @Yuletapeli ,sasa Ako na deni pages mbili kwa kitabu,such guys can’t sustain or grow our economy

retailers wengi sana wako kwa biashara. wakora wakihepa kwao walete pesa ya wizi hapa kenya, yule mtu anaprotect wao akitoka kwa power wataanguka

Nimemrusha bad debts account. Amenimaliza :D:D:D

Peasants like @Wanaruona goes to malls and high end supermarkets to only take pictures and look at women he can never have without buying anything.

Kuna time umedai ukona shop…ni supermarket ama ni ka duka kama kale ka Mr and Mrs kamau

Our SME culture is the most deadly systemic issue that distorts our markets. Having 1 million ‘mama mbogas’ in every sector disintermediates aggregate demand such that as a venture, you cannot commit yourself to capture large markets because you have to deal with 50 kiosks,100 vibandas within let’s say a 5km radius. And this is in all sectors even medicine,IT etc.
Everyone is a broker and everyone is selling into the same market that is why we don’t have our own Oracle or multinational corporations.We simply have too many businesses chasing very little spending power.

Their economy is not like ours. They have much lower unemployment rates and their minimum wage can support supermarket shopping. I doubt if your maid for example can buy milk and bread daily (150 x 30=4500) this is already close to half her pay. The majority there can afford to shop in supermarkets. Most of our working economy is employed informally. People like maids, watchmen, fundis and so on cannot afford to take a matatu, enter supermarkets and shop frequently. When you drive along mbagathi road every morning, those people on the side of the road are walking to work, they cannot afford 30bob or 50bob fare to and fro every day. They are unlikely to take a detour to enter some mall and buy stuff. We need to uplift our economy.

Huko kulikuwa na vitu ngori ngori na safi safi. Anyway Africans more so kenya need Mama Mboga as the sole retailer

:D:D:D sembuse mtu wa duka, anauza loaf kama 30 daily na profit ya 3, at the end of the day hizo loaves zinakuwa zimeleta faida ya 90 bob. Alafu @Karoga anakuja ana kopa mikate mbili za 120 na anaingia mbooni forest

True .

Kuna dame amehepa nairobi mboch amerudi home…salo 5k a month but sasa employers are asking stay in mboches to feed themselves ni malazi watapewa na off…but ajilishe kwa salo yake.

Hizi mishahara za afrika zina support shoplifting not shopping.

Ghasia heshima idumu.