There is a new and fashionable trend in town, one that has taken Harare by storm as a new breed of creative entrepreneurs defy standard business practices and city bylaws to erect shops on the streets and pavements.
It has become the norm to find people selling new or second hand clothes and other creative wares from parking lots, shopping centres, from their cars and at any open space in the city centre. Out of interest, Zimbojam went around Harare to find out more about this new phenomenon.
If you take a visit around heavy and light industrial areas of Southerton, Workington, Graniteside and Msasa you will be greeted by scenes of clothes hanging out from car trunks and some on rooftops as enterprising merchants outsmart the biting economy. The same trend can be seen in the avenues areas and selected shopping centres such as Five Avenue shops.
Harare’s central business area takes the lead with a curiously interesting group of youngsters clad in fancy urban wear and milling around the former Ximex Mall area which has since been turned into a parking lot (a decision many still find questionable). The youthful traders have devised very smart ways to push their wares, strategies that could leave marketing gurus green with envy as they employ street and guerrilla tactics to lure business. The very friendly, persuasive, but at times aggressive youth, have strong market intelligence to identify their potential clients and possess unparalleled bargaining skills which works well for them since they have very little overhead costs.
Zimbojam spoke to a few traders who explained their model which can loosely affirm the adage that says, “necessity is the mother of all inventions.” The need for employment to fend for self and family in combination with a collapsing economy have pushed them to the streets and taught them new survival skills.
A majority of sellers decried the exorbitant shop and office rental fees that are highly prohibitive saying, “On the streets we do not pay rent to anyone. We simply park our vans and sell from the cars in very strategically positioned locations to our potential customers. The only money we may pay is the hourly parking rate which is a dollar an hour and since most of us start at 10 or 11am the fee is reduced, and also over a long period of time we have built mutually beneficial relations with the municipal parking officials. The only challenge is the municipal police who at times confiscate our wares which we can easily redeem after payment of a fine.”
On sale are top of the range brands of jeans, tshirts, sneakers, hoodies, dresses and phones. However, we could not validate the authenticity of the brand labels they sell, but one top SA rapper K.O. (who owns the Cash Time brand) during his August tour of Zimbabwe made suggestions that majority of his clothes selling in the country were counterfeits. However, this is the same range of clothes you will find in a lot of boutiques. The question then becomes where do they get these clothes and who finances them?
Speaking in confidentiality, one vendor explained on the source of their merchandise,”Majority of the clothes come from China, some parts of Asia, Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique and some come from America and Europe. They either come in as new or second hand.”
The source went on to allude to the fact that a lot of shop owners now have their wares also on the streets as a way of beating competition and creating a monopoly as they employ the services of touts and agents who sell on commission.
Some buyers we spoke to on the streets said they buy from the streets as the prices and at times the quality is far better than from the shops.
Of interest is also the proliferation of other creatively connected vendors who have invaded the streets. At every corner you hear loud music booming from self powered speakers with CDs of the music playing spread in front as various artists attempt to outwit piracy by selling their own copies on the streets. Some have gone a step further and partnered with newspaper companies to push their music and films.
A walk around Gulf complex downtown Harare sounds like a music contest as majority of shops now have public address systems in front playing music that is often interjected by an announcer whom you can easily mistake for a radio DJ as they skillfully entice customers though some shoppers find the music too loud and deterring.
If you are an artist and your new release is not on rotation at Gulf complex or does not make up the compilation from the many touts who install music on phones and flash discs then that song is not a hit. The music touts are in touch with the latest music be it local or international and are highly techno-savvy.
A walk up Robert Mugabe road you will be greeted by a sorry-looking-and-long-shut-but-once-vibrant Rainbow Cinema whose sister Liberty Cinema has since been renovated and turned into a shopping mall. The only resemblance of film activity you see at these two spots are vendors selling pirated motion picture DVDs.
Later in the evening around 6pm the Copa Cabana area turns into a hive of activity as defiant film makers, most of them self-taught, erect mobile movie houses where they screen their latest comedies, feature films and music videos which will be on sale. Scores of enthusiasts can be seen milling and jostling for a view in the crowded market area. This has proven to be a success for the creative-entrepreneurs as as they confirmed brisk business as some of their products have found their way to national television, ZBC; an example of this is detective series ‘Go-Chanaiwa-Go’.
City of Harare has been seized with the unprecedented sprouting of street vendors and flea markets which take a huge toll on service delivery as rural to urban migration accelerates, compounded by increasing unemployment. In May, 2005 the government embarked on a clean up campaign, Operation Murambatsvina, which saw illegal settlers and traders in urban areas (mainly Harare) being driven out in a move that drew condemnation from various sections of the society. It is yet to be seen how the city fathers will respond to this new surge of streetpreneurs.
