Paying the price of convenience
The emergence of shopping malls in key urban centres and
neighbourhoods in recent times seems to be redefining shopping
experience in Nigeria. But this is fast becoming a mixed bag for
shoppers and retail shop operators,
SIMON EJEMBI reports
Many years ago, shopping amounted to a stressful exercise for Ebere Agina.
“You have to be prepared to be pushed or shoved, when
you go to the market. And if you are unlucky your money could get
stolen,” she recalls.
She still has that experience, but only once in a while; when she goes to the market for some specific items or variety.
Most times, she patronises one of the shopping malls that have been built in different parts of Lagos over the last few years.
Apart from being a ‘way more’ convenient place to shop, the malls offer her quality products.
“Surprisingly, the prices of items in the shopping
malls are sometimes cheaper than those of similar items in the
(traditional) markets. Maybe it is because some of the shops in the
malls get their goods straight from the manufacturers,” Agina, who
patronises Shoprite in Surulere and Mr. Price, adds.
In the last five to seven years, the number of
shopping malls in Lagos – and the country as a whole – has been on the
rise. In Lagos, for instance, from Lekki to Victoria Island, Ikeja to
Surulere, residents now have alternatives to the traditional markets.
It is a development that many shoppers commend, for making the shopping experience more convenient and organised.
For Prince Lee, a lawyer, the attraction is original items.
“I get original stuff from Shoprite, just like when I
travel abroad. But it has also affected my finance; ordinarily if I
spent N40, 000 a month before, I now spend about N80, 000 because I shop
randomly. That could be considered a negative aspect of it,” he says.
Another shopper, Mrs. Yinka Oyeleyin, says while she
appreciates the convenience the shopping malls offer, she visits them
only for specific items. She, however, avoids the malls on Saturdays
because they can be as crowded as traditional markets on such days.
Oyeleyin says it will take up to 50 more shopping malls to ease the
congestion the malls presently witness at the weekend.
But as more people throng the malls, it is not all positive.
“There is no difference between the shopping malls and Idumota (market),” Femi Jones says, while describing his experience.
He adds, “In both places where you buy goods you are
harassed for money from the moment you park your car. There is no
difference for me.”
The Managing Director, Lagos State Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, says while the malls have raised the bar in terms
of retailing, there is a flip side –they are stifling smaller retail
outlets.
“They have raised the bar for supermarket chains in Nigeria; people have a standard that they can look up to,” he says.
“The flip side is that many of our local retail shops
will be adversely affected. So we are likely to see significant loss of
jobs in the retail sector, particularly around each of these shopping
malls.”
Yusuf adds that from reports reaching him, some shops around the malls are already going out of business.
While he says the positives of the shopping malls
outweigh the negatives, he stresses that the negatives still give cause
for concern.
“The retail sales sector is a major employer of
labour in Nigeria, so if you have a situation where the presence of this
shopping mall is now affecting them, especially at a time when we are
talking about unemployment and so on, it is something that should give
concern,” he explains.
Emeka Chimeze, who runs a boutique in Ketu, says the
emergence of the malls has not affected his business because there is no
mall nearby. But the case is not the same for his brother who owns a
boutique in Ogba, close to a new shopping mall.
“He has been crying that the mall is killing his
business,” he said. When asked about the chances his brother may have of
moving his business into the mall, Chimeze said it would cost nothing
less than N5m to rent a shop in the mall.
But Lee says the emergence of the shopping malls will
affect smaller shops mainly because they do not sell original goods,
which, according to him, is what people want.
A pharmacist, Mr. Finbarr T, who works in a pharmacy
at the Ikeja Shopping Mall, says that while the shopping malls are
better organised and attract many customers, his shop does not have a
big edge over others in traditional set ups.
“I think what matters is the location,” he said. “For
instance there is a pharmacy near Allen Roundabout in Ikeja, and
because there are a lot of companies there, it gets a lot of customers.
Mrs. Seun Awolola, who admits that the malls were
likely to affect smaller business, particularly those close to the
malls, says the impact will increase over time.
She adds that as soon as the shopping centres start
selling everything that can be purchased in the traditional market at a
similar price, she and many others like herself will have no reason to
go to the traditional markets any more.
She adds, “When this happens, there will be nothing anyone can do about it”.
But Muda believes some form of regulation might help now.
“We can check their spread. There has to be a way of
regulating them. So that in a city they don’t capture all the retail
markets – because we have to keep our people employed,” he insists.
However, the trend being witnessed in the country at
the moment is only just beginning, according to a report on retail
investment – released last year.
The report, “Redefining Retail Investment”, which was
published by Jones Lang Lasalle, a multinational financial and
professional services company specialising in real estate, shows that
the emergence of these shopping centres is likely to redefine retail
investment, a development that will not only pose greater threat to
small retail outlets but will see shopping centres dot the landscape.
In the report, Nigeria, alongside Venezuela,
Bangladesh, Algeria, Pakistan, Iraq and Manyar, is ranked in the
frontier markets, which is rated ‘opaque’ in the transparency index for
2012,, while South Africa is ranked, alongside Italy, Spain, and the
UAE, in the transitional market – which is rated ‘transparent’ on the
index.
In the frontier market, to which Nigeria belongs, the
report says, “organised retailing is at an early stage of evolution and
the retail infrastructure is still poorly developed. The number of
modern shopping centres is very limited.
“Substantial market opportunities come in tandem with
the major challenges that are associated with difficult operating
environments, low real estate transparency and high political/economic
risk.”
According to the report, the emergence of these malls is partly driven by the inexorable growth of the urban middle classes.
With regards to the future of shopping centres and
retail investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, the report predicts that South
African investors or developers in partnership with retailers are likely
to accelerate their move across the continent.
As this happens, it adds, “The focus will be on Nigeria, the region’s
largest consumer market, oil-rich Angola, Ghana and Mozambique, and
some of the more stable markets in Southern and Eastern Africa.”
