A breath of fresh air seemed to
have hit Ibadan city with the
opening of Shoprite retail store on
Thursday, June 27. Shoprite,
located beside the famous Cocoa
House, the city’s tallest structure, in
Dugbe, attracted thousands of
residents on its opening day on June
28.
The size of the crowd that
thronged the mall made it the
biggest attraction in the city.
Various jokes also hit the social
media about the crowd of people
that greeted the store on its
opening day. A famous joke says
102,000 people visited the store on
that day, with only about N35,000
made from sales. Many, the
inventors of the jokes claimed, were
at the store to window shop and
take pictures.
However, the situation had not
changed much after one week.
There was a large crowd of people
milling in and out of the mall, filling
up all the spaces within the store.
But so were the cash points;
shoppers queued up at the 17 main
cash points and the additional two
points at the kiosk section, giving
the cashiers no moment of rest on
the job. Business owners, civil
servants, students and even school
pupils in uniforms made up the
crowd, buying notebooks and other
school items.
But in general, youths and middle-
aged persons seemed to make up the
bulk of people at the store,
Saturday PUNCH observed.
A student, Mr. Wale Olusola, who
was at the mall on the day it opened,
said there was “mad human traffic”
within and around the mall. He said,
“We had to move slowly because
there were so many people coming in
and going out. It was like forming
queues all over the place. People also
had to be vigilant so that their
phones and wallets didn’t get stolen
by pick-pockets in the crowd.”
A businessman, Mr. Biodun Azeez,
described the opening of the mall as
a “good thing”, saying he was happy
with the development.
He said, “I’ve been here twice in
three days and I always buy things.
There is always something to buy
because it’s hard to resist the lure
of the goods here. It’s like they are
all shouting ‘come buy me’. And you
don’t need to haggle over the price,
which is sometimes frustrating.”
Another shopper, Mrs. Olumide
Abulude, described the mall as a
‘one-stop shop’ and a new feature in
the city.
“You don’t even need to visit an open
market like Agbeni because you can
get everything here. Their prices
are also reasonable. You can get
groceries, meat and even locust
beans here,” she said, adding that
people generally have a wrong notion
about the city.
“The truth is that Ibadan is up
there and its people know how to
enjoy life. You can see the crowd
here and the number of people
buying and buying things< Abulude
added.
However, a shopper, Mr. Adewale
Mayowa, said the crowd had been
split between the real buyers and
the window shoppers.
He said, “There are indeed, a large
number of real shoppers, but there
are also some who only come to see,
take photos or buy something small
like sausage.”
Shoprite is located within a merged
stuctuer comprising the Cocoa Mall
and the Heritage Mall.
The Heritage Mall, which occupies
the old Sketch House, was financed
by O’dua Investment Company at the
cost of about N1.4bn, while the
Cocoa Mall, which is an extension of
Cocoa House, is being done in
conjunction with a private
developer, Topservices Limited.
Even though the malls were yet to be
completed, as construction work was
still ongoing, when Saturday PUNCH
visited the place, residents were
already excited about the prospect
of having arguably the biggest mall
in South-West Nigeria.
Aside from Shoprite, others like
PEP, Mr. Price, Cash and Carry,
Filmhouse Cinema, and Lifemate
Furniture have begun operations,
while other spaces are being
prepared.
But with the addition of the
shopping malls and Shoprite to the
scores of other stores in Ibadan,
the shopping culture of the
residents will arguably experience a
major change. Many already suspect
that open markets like Agbeni and
Aleshinloye might suffer now that
people can get most of the products
under a roof, without having to move
from stall to stall, in the sun.
But a trader at Agbeni market, who
identified herself as Alhaja Risikat,
debunked the fears.
She said, “There will always be
people who prefer to come to us; so
I don’t think it is ever going to
affect us. We used to have Kingsway
and UTC in Ibadan and there were
still other markets then, so it won’t
make any difference at all.”
Similarly, the managements of some
other big stores in the city have
also said they are not threatened by
Shoprite’s arrival.
The expatriate owner of Trolleys, a
store a few blocks away from
Shoprite, Mr. George Kay,
described the situation as “give and
take.”
He said, “It is true that Shoprite
brings a lot of traffic to this place,
but in that process, it is also opening
the place up. So some people coming
here for the first time will notice
our store too and visit. “Sometimes,
people who have been in traffic for
long would stop by our place and not
even get to Shoprite. And there is
nothing they have that I don’t have,
but there are things I have that
they don’t have.
“But on the other hand, the traffic
here at the weekend was so bad that
the entrance to my shop was
blocked. People coming to my store
were hindered by the traffic
situation. So there is the benefit
angle and there is the damage angle
too; but no fear from me.”
Also at Foodco in Bodija, which
offers a variety of services and
products, an official who did not
give his name, said, “The sky is
large for every bird to fly.”
The source also said nothing had
changed at Foodco since the opening
of Shoprite in Ibadan.
He said, “There is a big population in
Ibadan and we have our loyal
customers. Since they came, there
has been no difference in our sales,
so the sky is large enough. People
may go there (Shoprite) and check
what is happening there, but our
customers know what we also offer.”
A representative of Zooma store,
also at Bodija, who spoke to our
correspondent, described the
population of Ibadan as a huge
factor to consider.
She said, “When you consider the
population of Ibadan, it’s enough to
go round. However, I don’t think
their (Shoprite) coming to Ibadan
will affect standard stores. I think
it’s the open markets that will be
affected. Since they opened,
business has been the same here.”
At Challenge, a PEP store, which
opened in December 2012, has been
popular with residents around there.
An official of the store, who spoke
in confidence, also said the store
had nothing to worry about.
The source said, “We are not
threatened at all because we have
the cheapest prices in town and our
customers know that; that’s what
works for us.”
Meanwhile, an official of Shoprite,
who spoke under condition of
anonymity because he said he was
not authorised to speak to
journalists, said business has been
good at the store.
However, when asked about sales
figures, the official said employees
were not allowed to discuss sales.
He, however, noted that the store
was worthy of the attention it had
got in the city.
The source said, “Well, business has
been good but we don’t ever discuss
our sales. People have been coming
to buy variety of things; bread has
been doing well and people even
come for locust beans.
“When you compare the kind of
investment we have put in the place,
you will know that it’s worth it. We
offer our customers aesthetics and
the very best.”

SOURCE: www.punchng.com/feature/super-saturday/people-come-here-to-ask-for-locust-beans-shoprite-worker/

Ok! Make i go buy one pure water there afterall, na shopping e be

2nd to comment

I too believe trolleys will benefit from the location of shoprite.

The traffic around dugbe these days is crazy.

Thimbs up IB city, you are becoming a place for all again. More industrialisation in the city. I can't wait to see and behold you.

Ibadan city..............lovely city

That will easily be remedied once nigerian market proves profitable and stable. shoprite is yet to build its own mall on their property in nigeria yet. they are just leasing space in existing malls in nigeria to test and develope the retail chain market in nigeria.

There is plan to build 50 locations of their own in nigeria in the future and accquisation of land has started. A city like ibadan with its population density if backed by sales in this test/present location will easily have up to 5 more stores.

Shop rite has over seven brands of stores besides shoprite such as:checkers, usave,liquor, pharmacy,etc.
and they run over almost 400 stores in ZA alone servicing a population far less than the population of nigeria.

If they make ample profit which is their aim in being here in the first place i suspect there will be a lot of outlets in nigeria in the future.

And dont forget that among retail chains globally shoprite is ranked 97th though ranked 1st within Africa, which means 96 retail chains far bigger than shop rite are watching what shoprite is doing breaking grounds in nigeria and africa.

If shoprites experiment proves profitable then we will see a lot of investment from some of the other 96 retail chains in these area because these companies are always looking at new profitable market to channel their expansion.

Retail is one of the areas of the economy that generate a lot of jobs in most countries around the world, and nigeria will be better off with retail chain development.

Just imagine the number of jobs it will create! indigenous supplier it will also create! and the local competition it will generate! remember MTN, ECONET foreign firms birthed the indigenous Globalcom.

keeping my fingers crossed.
and just praying that shoprite succeeds in Nigeria as it will open nigerian economy to a whole new level of possibilities.
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ib 4 life