Sale of the century

The United Kingdom is in a flux at the moment, unsure of its future as the impending recession is looming over the horizon. However, the British being who they are have decided to have one last hurrah before the crunch really hits this year. The economy is fundamentally a state of mind, right now the government, the media and the shops are locked in a conspiracy to get all and sundry out to shop. The solution is that we can shop our way out of this crisis by borrowing money, so that we stimulate the economy, this is because the retail sector is now a large portion of the economy that a good shopping spree can revive but the reality remains that you cannot borrow your way out of debts. Rwanda has a lot to learn from U.K. The first lesson being “never borrow too much to live above your means”, second, we should copy their sales seasons. It is endearing to see a nation that is the 4th most industrialised in the world still having its shopping season based on the old agricultural calendar. Much like Chairman Mao instigated perpetual revolution, the British practice perpetual sales and this is at their heart of their retail system and even where there are gaps, these gaps are artificially plugged in. Christmas is the biggest sales season where shops make a third of their profits. The Christmas sales are followed by the January ones, where leftover stock is sold cheaply. Then comes Valentines, where people are obliged to buy for their loved ones, then comes Mothers’ Day in March, just in time for spring and the end of the financial year, the final stock is sold off in time for April 1st. Just as the farmers start to plant we have the Spring sales, even the clocks go forward an hour in order for farmers to wake up earlier to tend to their crops, this dates back to a time when 80 percent of the British were farmers. Wednesday is still a day reserved for the market and strictly observed to this day. Children still get summer holidays off from late June to September in order to help around the farm with tending and harvesting crops. Summer time is of course the time of the summer sales, after the summer sales come the Autumn sales in September – November then it is back to the Christmas sales. How does this apply to Rwanda? Quartier Matteus, found smack in the centre of Kigali, is our true stock market in as much as it is a weather gage for our economy as it measures consumer confidence and sales figures. But sales are static compared to other commercial districts in the region; the hype of sales is needed, we need to structure our sales around our agricultural calendar. Some shopkeepers even raise their prices around harvest time just when farmers are coming to town to spend their money. Rwanda has to find a way to speed up stock turnover, right now too much of our capital is locked away in items gathering dust in shops. What Asian traders understand is the need to turnover stock quickly on smaller margins, because as the stock is gathering dust it is depreciating rapidly. Another important change we need is set prices, when one enters a shop one is expecting to enter a war of attrition with the store-owner as you haggle over everything, a good haggle can even get you 80 per cent off. This disparity of pricing is bad for our economy, firstly our government is losing millions of dollars in revenue and customers are cautious in spending as they do not know the true value of what they are buying. We would need market inspectors, extra tax-collectors, extra regulation, extra commitment but the rewards would be worth it. Incidentally all the sales do not look like they will save the UK from deep recession and sadly the shops are up for sale and the retail sector will lose several major players. The writer is currently living in the United Kingdom ramaisibo@hotmail.com