Mr. Price rebranded in SA as Mr.P as well.assfly wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 7:01 amShoprite have just closed all of their shops in Kenya. A real shame, it was like being back in SA with all their goodies. Apparently they can't compete with CarreFour. Mr Price also folded here recently, rebranded to Mr. P and have a local owner but it's pretty awful. Woolworths do have shops here, but only clothes and prohibitively expensive.Blake wrote: Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:55 am He is in Nairobi. He was referring to SA Woolworths that hasn't expanded to East Africa yet.
Kenya and Tanzania have a lot saffer retailers and corporates. In Dar es Salaam in 2009, if I wanted to, I could buy a Vodacom SIM at a Vodashop, draw some cash at Standard Bank, buy some food at Shoprite and some flip flops at Mr Price and eat dinner at the Spur watching the rugby.
Regarding Wizzit, it's frustrating how time sensitive a lot of these technologies are. I great idea will only get you so far, timing is everything. Before every dominant technology today there was a failed competitor that had the exact same thing...just too in the wrong market or the wrong time.
Spur have been here a couple of years but I don't see them lasting. Just not their market, and not enough Saffa expats here to sustain.
But ABSA have recently taken over all the Barclays, but they're not much competition for the big local banks here.
Ja, many SA retailers are pulling back a bit after being burnt expanding into the rest of Africa. It's a tough market to compete in given all the variables, particularly logistics and price when they just don't have the economy of scale to be as competitive as they are at home. But it's the same challenge US retailers and chains face when trying to break into the SA market, so not unique.