Changing face of shopping in Accra

The changing face of shopping in Accra
December 23,2007

By Doreen Allotey
One of the ingenious means people are using to steal at the Shoprite Supermarket within the Accra Mall is to open drinks while they are in the supermarket, hide behind shelves and drink to their fill, leaving the empty bottles behind.
The shop has responded by providing more security. This is because in one stealing incident it lost two bottles of Brandy, each costing over GH¢100. The boxes containing the bottles were intact but the bottles containing the drinks were gone.
Apart from that, Shoprite is on the move, concentrating on the sale of fast moving goods such as perishables, while Game deals in durables such as televisions, cameras and other household appliances.
Enter Shoprite and you can see and smell the season of Christmas. Ten kilo turkeys, decorations, hampers and lots of goodies. You see the tellers happily smiling at the numerous customers pushing their trolleys up and down and filling them with goodies. Some toddlers sit on the trolleys, pointing at a thousand and one things they want their parents to buy for them.
The prices of the hampers range from GH¢20 to GH¢40 and they contain items like perfumed rice, biscuits, drinks and cooking oil.
Not too long ago, in this city of Accra, it was unheard of to go shopping for vegetables like pepper, tomatoes, okro and garden eggs in a supermarket. Now it has become very close to the usual with the existence of shops like A&C, Koala, Max Mart and, very recently, Shoprite in the newly opened Accra Mall.
So, instead of buying these vegetables and other items like fish from the market, where one will vie for space with other people, porters and flies, some have chosen to shop in comfort at these supermarkets.
And contrary to the situation in the past when supermarkets were not open for business on Sundays, these shops have realised that not all people go to church on Sundays and that even if they did, they love to shop after church.
“It is becoming a family outing kind of thing, a venue to meet friends and chat for a few minutes,” Mr Johann Koegelenberg, the General Manager of Shoprite, told the Daily Graphic in a chat.
For that reason, he said, Shoprite, for instance, maintained its 9.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m. business hours, even on Sundays, and Sundays are the busiest days for the shop.
Mr Koegelenberg said the shop’s focus was to satisfy Ghanaians and foreign residents and that since the shop officially opened in November, patronage had been good.
He said the fire outbreak that occurred in April which prevented the shop from opening in May was a major setback.
“Some goods which had been brought in for the grand opening had to be taken back to South Africa because they had expired and new stocks ordered,” he explained.
And to meet the demands of the season, the shop has been stocked with a wide variety of items.
People have been employed specifically to work deep into the night stocking the shelves with food and other items.
The shop runs promotions on a regular basis and this season it has special promotions on many things we love to use at Christmas — rice, tinned tomatoes, drinks and more.
The positive thing is that most of the foods, such as vegetables and the meat products neatly packaged on the shelves, are made in Ghana, Mr Koegelenberg proudly said.
“We want to promote local business. We even have locally-produced fresh milk in bottles as we have in the developed countries,” he said.
Mr Koegelenberg observed that even though Shoprite was open to all, some still saw it as a place for a certain class. He, therefore, encouraged everyone to come in.
“Once at Shoprite, you will realise that the prices are truly affordable,” he said.
Mr Andy Shaw, the General Manager of Game, was very impressed with sales.
He said it was normal everywhere that sales went up by between 60 and 70 per cent during Christmas.
He said Game had learnt that Ghanaians liked to give themselves special treats at the end of the year and so they walked into the shop buying things they wanted like televisions sets, compact disc (CD) players, etc. for themselves.
At Game too, customers were seen busy with trolleys shopping, while others did window shopping.
As is normal every year, the human traffic at the central business district of Accra is heavy at this time of the year.
Auntie Connie, a cosmetic and ribbons seller, said although there were many people in town, they were looking more than buying.
By as early as 5.00 a.m., a number of shops were already open at the central business district (Makola Shopping Mall, Tudu and Aflao Station areas) and crowds of Christmas shoppers had filled them. Others stood in front of shops, waiting for them to open.
Sellers and pedestrians were vying for space at Okaishie, which has three lanes, leaving only the centre lane for vehicles.
The situation at Melcom, a supermarket at the Opera Square, was not different. The shop was filled to the brim with shoppers, some of them schoolchildren buying Christmas decorations especially.