I walked into Spar at Borrowdale Brooke yesterday and was delighted to see the latest O Magazine on their newspaper and magazine stands. I did not care to notice the price because I consider myself a loyal and profitable customer for Oprah’s news and information business. In addition, the standard price one obtains it for the magazine is always around ZAR27,95 in South Africa or approximately US$3.50. After finishing placing all my desirables in my basket I went to check out at the Till. To my astonishment the O Magazine was going for US$28,75, or ZAR230 equivalent and even more surprising the attendee did not realize the strange and very material amount for a magazine especially when the average price of a magazine in Zimbabwe is approximately US$2. I requested that she removed the magazine from my basket of desirables and advised the attendee to consult management about this abnormal price. Surely, it must be a mistake. Even Americans don’t pay as much for the magazine. It seemed so surreal. However, what I found strikingly amazing however was that the nonchalant attitude the attendee had. I realized they may lack a deep rooted understanding of the value of the US dollar. That means in theory a US dollar circulating in a US economy should be of the same US dollar in the Zimbabwe economy, with all being considered equal (e.g. the classical economist instruments of GDP per capita and inflated linked consumer-price-index (CPI) have a correlation on the appreciation and the devalue of a currency). Nevertheless, it continued to boggle my mind that if I had taken the last O Magazine on the stand how many consumers in Harare purchased this product without as so much, to blink at the high value placed on the product. This is retail un-therapeutic indeed! I surmised, the Customer is NOT King, here L.
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Just as I was getting over my disappointment with O Magazine saga, today my cousin and some a few of a her friends decided to go for a few well-deserved cocktails for a couple of hours at a place by Sam Levys, Borrowdale, called Mekka. I unfortunately, was put on a heavy prescription plan by the doctor from antibiotics to asthma pumps so I decided to order a ‘virgin’ strawberry daiquiri. Now, one would think that because there is no alcohol in the cocktail that should partially, if not significantly drop the price of the cocktail. The current average price of a cocktail at Mekka is US$5. So, at best-case-scenario price should be reduced by 50% to US$2.50 and worst-case-scenario price should be reduced by 25% to US$3.75. So, to my surprise, when we received the Bill the Waiter serving us just rang the non-alcoholic beverages as alcoholic beverage. I felt cheated. Surely, one can’t charge a customer for the same price for a product that specific (known-to-be expensive ingredients in Food and Beverage industry) ingredients are deliberately omitted. So, I decided to inquire with a smiley face, desperately suppressing my potential wrath toward the Waiter, particularly for his lack of intuitiveness on the job. The Waiter, replied stating something along the lines of ‘it’s the way the Till System is designed to capture the orders, so we have no choice but to ring the options that are available.’ I could instantly hear, the siren ringing in my head. I then retorted, ‘Please may you speak to your manager about that because I am not comfortable paying for a drink that does not have the same taste as the standard drinks. So, the manager came and told me the same thing like they are all reading from the same manual that came with the Cash Register. By then, I had once again, silently resigned to just paying the bill for the sake of terminating what appeared to be a monologue with management. This made it the second incident this week I witnessed of the customer is really NOT the King and came to the general conclusion that inefficient, day-light-robbery of the management information systems (MIS) in the city of Harare retail business’, seems to be the order of the day, more often than one cares to admit. How many times is the customer’s ‘safety and security’ being taken care of in this country? Just recently South Africa just passed the South African Consumers Act 2011 that serves to protect the rights of its citizen after 17 years of democracy. Zimbabwe has almost twice the years of independence however, where are the laws that govern and protect the rights of Consumers in this country? Over the years the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) has been recording feedback from consumers’ discontent and frustrations brought about by retailers’ reluctance to compensate or replace faulty goods and lack of guarantees among other problems, (www.ccz.org.zw – accessed 12 November 2011). This highlights one of the fundamentals problems in our socio-economic structures of this country. Where is the national system’s ability to demonstrate the social aspect of its contribution, thus far? If the system had a high rate of social return, this would increase the social welfare of the country, not just the purely private rate of investment. Can’t our country see that we are now in The Age of Customer Capitalism, Martin et al., 2010. That means business’ more than ever have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) and a duty to their customers.
The ways businesses continue to operate in this economic climate, showing blatant disregard to the consumer further heighten and adds to the continuous degradation and decay of our socio-economic structure of Zimbabwe. Though business’ in this country strive to fight in building and contributing to the economy by creating employment and restoring confidence in the market; business’ also seem to have inherited a national culture of indifference and authoritarianism. Therefore, how can the new marketing adage of Customer is King live, breathe and thrive in this society that claims to exist in a democratic way? I will tell you why - because the theory of Customer is King is what it is – just a theory!
Copyright @ 12 November 2011. BlogSpot by Tambudzai Ndoro, Principal Director of Ndoro Resources PVT LTD and Non-Executive Director of Global Business Assignments Inc.,
