By NORMA SIAME –
LOOKING at the speed shopping malls are popping up around Zambia’s major cities, it is clear that mall culture is big business.
Modern shopping malls have registered an upward growth spurt, in sync with the exponential growth of the Zambian population.
An improvement in the country’s economic fortunes has meant that disposable income at household level has also increased.
In the past two decades, retail activities across the country  had been dominated by informal businesses serving a relatively low-income consumer market. Many of these businesses were chigulugulu or tutemba shops run by unlicensed mini-retailers. The businesses offered and in some places still offer an assortment of products and services.
These range from bread and buns to sugar and cooking oil mainly sold from informal premises that include homes and street corners.
The mere concept of a shopping mall was inconceivable and considered to be the preserve of highly industrialised countries.
Pictures taken at such establishments by overseas travelers were watched in awe.
During that era, a shopping spree meant finding one’s way to an overcrowded central business district coupled with trooping from one shop to another in search of bargains.
Retail outlets were few in number as the levels of disposable income in household were low when the price of copper, which is Zambia’s main forex earner, slumped to record lows.
Owing to its mercurial nature, the price of copper rose once again on the world market to record levels heralding a turn in Zambia’s economic landscape. Mines were reopened and support industries thrived.
Zambia, having a fast-growing population, GDP per capita growth, rising urbanisation levels, and an expanding middle class, created an increased demand in consumer goods.
A concurrent availability of more disposable income and a steady annual growth in GDP birthed modern lifestyles.
The affluent trooped to cities like Johannesburg in South Africa and brought tales of mega shopping malls like Rosebank and Westgate which housed a wide assortment of stores and merchandise available in a single location or under one roof. Some malls actually boasted of having everything under the sun in one locale.
It was not long that investors saw an opportunity to replicate that which was attracting Zambians overseas resulting in the construction of and eveantual opening of Manda Hill shopping mall in Lusaka in the year 2000.. By international standards, it was a small building but still a first of its kind in Zambia.
From the inception of Mandahill, Zambia has seen steady increase of such establishments.
Lusaka now has Arcades Shopping Centre, East Park, Makeni, Levy Business Park, Manda Hill and Cairo Mall.
Kitwe’s US$ 200 million Mukuba Mall is Zambia’s largest mall as at now.
Ndola has Kafubu Mall, Z-Mart, and Jacaranda while in Livingstone those with a thirst for retail therapy troop to Falls Way Park and Mosi-o-tunya Square.
For many shoppers, visiting a mall is advantageous because the shops are housed in a complex. Groceries, clothes, shoes, reading material, food courts, cinemas and entertainment are available in one place. You can spend a whole day at the mall, shop, dine, watch a movie or play games.
They are great meeting places for friends to catch up over coffee or a meal in the food court. Families arrive for their weekly shopping and keep the kids entertained at the mall.
For teenagers, malls have become the ‘it’ place to see things and be seen. For many, a weekend is incomplete without a trip to the mall.
It affords them a chance to hang out like kids in Western countries are portrayed on TV.
For the trendy group of jet-setters the mall is the place to wear fashionable pieces of clothing because they will not attract unwanted attention from call boys that characterise places like the central business district of Lusaka.
Nineteen-year-old Mindy Sakala who was clad in a pair of summer shorts and a crop top loves the atmosphere and class of crowd that frequents places like Mandahill and East Park.
“Just look at the people here! No one cares how I am dressed and everyone is busy with their own business. I don’t think I would have the courage to go near Kulima Tower dressed the way I am. The call boys there would undress me. There is definitely a more polished and more civilized crowd here,” she said.
Another mall frequenter Michael Siakazindu loves the fact that he is able to get everything he wants under one roof and if he so wishes, he can buy a television set and vegetables in the same location.
He meets business associates and friends at cafes and restaurants in food courts as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the central business district filled with bus drivers driving crazily as they weave in and out of clogged traffic lanes. They at times drive on the wrong side of the road at rush hour.
Shopping centre developments in township areas are also praised for the benefits of choice and urban regeneration that they offer to the residents. What is less prominently highlighted, however, is the potential for shopping centre developments to hamper small business. In a country where the larger chunk of the population is employed by the informal sector, small business is seen as central to growth and employment opportunities. Mega mall developments represent a threat.
For 10 years Mary Chibuye operated a shop that sold baby clothes with the help of an assistant. She would buy her merchandise from Nakonde.
But her fortunes started changing when malls started coming up and South African retail stores like Jet and Ackermans opened.
Mrs Chibuye began losing customers to the ultra-modern shop, and would at times only sell one nappy the whole week. Soon she could not afford to pay her assistant and meeting her rental obligations became a problem.
The opening of these retail shops was the death knell for her business. To replace her source of income, Mr Chibuye now rears to provide for her family.
Many township bakeries have had to close too as big hypermarkets churn out tasty baked goodies everyday luring customers from the small outfits. Many have had to throw in the towel and decided to close shop.
I can be catastrophic for small-scale traders when a large-scale retailer aggressively pushes them out of the market.
While they enable you to get nearly everything you want under one roof, they can also lead to traffic jams, force small businesses to close and send rentals and land prices sky high.