By NBM WRITER
They said that necessity is the mother of invention. They weren’t wrong. A group of traders at the famous Gikomba market have devised new ways to beat the competition and make a life in these hard economic times.
Instead of confining themselves to stalls or hawking their wares in bulk, as is often the norm, this small band buys a single item then moves away to sell it to another customer at a small profit. Some even buy for their own consumption only to sale to the next person who shows interest – a concept made popular by the rapper 50 Cent in the video of his song Window Shopper
Kimani, a student at the Kenya School of Law says that whenever he needs a quick dime, all he has to do is go to Gikomba, buy something decent then move around hawking it. In under an hour he’s able to dispense with it while making a profit of not less than Sh400. On the days he is absolutely “formless” he can make up to Sh5000 from simply crisscrossing the streets.
“It is a good way to make some money”, he says, “especially for those, like me who are somewhat proud and wouldn’t want to be associated with things like hawking.”
The best thing about lonesome hawking, as he calls it, is its flexibility. One neither needs to pay for a stall as well as all the other resultant charges nor jostle for a hawking space. It is especially comfortable for those, like Kimani, who do not view hawking or trading as a main source of income. But best of all is how it allows one to follow the customer and, in his words, “get his undivided attention”
For the more serious ones, like Adeck, social media has allowed them to make so much more from buying in bulk and selling with negligible overhead costs, without even having to spend the day at the market. Call them the classy, full time hawkers, a branch of the crème de la crème of Gikomba traders who import mitumba in bulk.
Adeck purchases clothes worth hundreds of thousands a week from the wholesalers, which she then sells online. She has a Facebook page with 29,000 likes, an Instagram account, and even a Twitter handle, and it is where her customers shop. She doesn’t pay rent; neither does she have to worry about the Sh100 the city council charges daily, or the Sh250 per week membership fee for cartels who do not provide any services. Besides two motorbikes and their drivers to deliver her orders, there are no other costs.
“Every week I buy stock worth between Sh200, 000 and Sh300, 000. I make a profit of between Sh100, 000 to Sh150, 000. I make Sh20, 000 on a good day and at least Sh5, 000 in a bad one. For every garment, I make at least Ksh500” She says.
“Until I do away with the wholesalers and do my importing alone, I am not comfortable though. A bale of clothes goes for 12,000, and the wholesalers have not reduced the price even with tax deductions in the budget. Imagine how much I would make then?” she adds with a glee
With people like Kimani and Adeck, starting a successful business doesn’t seem such a difficult thing to do after all. Not even in these difficult times.
