Challenges of shopping in Accra

There is a shop /supermarket here in Accra which irritates me so much that sometimes I could scream, and sometimes I have walked out in frustration!

Yet I still shop there because it has a reasonable selection of the items I usually buy, and good prices. I know what I want when I go there, and can fill my shopping cart in 20-30 minutes.

Then comes the palaver, as we say in this part of the world. If I have selected soaps and toiletries I have to make sure to keep them separate from the groceries, as there are separate checkouts. This doesn't work too badly when I go with someone else, but if I am alone, I have to finish paying for one set of items before putting myself in another queue.

So two separate queues, and that assumes that there are enough young women working at the checkouts. Then one has to have everything one has bought and paid for checked yet again before being packed in boxes or plastic bags!

But actually this shop has four payment points, because if you want to buy hair products there is another cashier, and if you want towels or bedding, then there is another place to pay. And then there are some items - right at the checkout - which the cashiers tell you are not on the system, and therefore there is no receipt! Aaargh...

Recently - actually the week before Christmas - I went to do some pretty large buying, only to find that there was something wrong with the power, and the cash registers/pcs were not on UPS's so every time the cashier started inputting the purchases, she lost the totals and had to start again. After this happened three times it was suggested that a manual receipt might be appropriate. But needless to say that advice/comment didn't get us anywhere, so I just abandoned everything and told them my piece of mind. And of course there was no senior person, or manager around... And in this busiest of shopping seasons, were there extra staff to help? Not likely. We the customers can wait... and wait... and wait...

After ranting and raving, I did wonder, isn't there any analysis of purchases over time, days, weeks, months? Surely the manager and/or owner knows what the peak periods are, and one would think that a manager or owner could adjust staffing accordingly?

Wouldn't it also make sense to put all the product information in one database, which is shared by all the pcs/cash registers - which are of course protected by UPS's?

Is it asking too much for cashiers to smile, and say "thank you" "please come again" and so on?

Or is it that the owner knows how she managed her smaller shop in Mokola or any of the other markets, and feels that she doesn't really need to change her processes, as no matter what, the money keeps rolling in?

And people like me contribute to the continuation of this lousy service, because even while we complain, we return, so what is the incentive to change?

"Flashing orange" traffic lights

Every morning when I go to work, I feel the tension mounting as I approach Abeka Junction. And I hope each time that the traffic lights at this major intersection will be switched from "flashing orange" or that there will be someone controlling traffic.

Alas, most days it's everyone for him or herself, with the trotros and taxi drivers honking their
horns at anyone who wishes to take a slightly more cautious approach to the junction. No doubt a few rude thoughts about the "abrewa obroni" driver will pass through their minds...

But it still doesn't help the stress.

Ghana and Young African Leaders Forum

interesting that there is very little commentary about the Young African Leaders Forum, or the people who are attending, at least that I have read, or heard about...   

It is somewhat ironic, that apart from a brief mention on Joy this morning, plus a brief news story about one of the participants  there just doesn't seem to be much hooplaa...  I am glad though that one of the Ghanaian bloggers in the diaspora chose to mention and comment about it .

Maybe we are too preoccupied with the STX deal?

Personally I do wonder how the Ghanaian young leaders were selected? And by whom?  Are they really and truly representatives of the emerging leaders who are coming out of Ghana?

No answers... only questions at this point

Ghanaian chocolate in short supply?

I am not a true chocaholic, but I do like chocolate, so almost every Saturday, usually towards the end of my shopping for household supplies and groceries, I usually try to treat myself, and those members of the household who are around to some chocolate.

Usually this is one of the varieties produced by the Ghana Cocoa Processing Company, and more often than not, there are a lot of bars of Kingsbite the milk chocolate in a red wrapper, since that seems to be the favourite of most.

Personally I like some of the other varieties - lemon, orange, groundnut, coffee, or the two darker ones, but those are mostly for me.

Or they used to be.  Now I am happy for anything I can get.

And lately I haven't been able to get any Ghanaian chocolate/  Plus I don't see much of it being sold on the streets by traders walking through the traffic stopped at intersections or lights or when there are police or traffic guards.

I think I heard that the Cocoa Processing Company factory was going to be closed or something like that for a while, but surely not for so long?

So in the meantime I have to make do with the imported varieites - and though I enjoy them, somehow they do taste different, and I yearn for that taste of the tropical forest processed locally!

Just a small shortage; nothing really significant.

But it does make me feel rather sad that I can't easily buy Ghanaian chocolate right now.

"Do you have change?"

One of the most frustrating aspects of engaging in any kind of monetary transaction in Ghana has to do with a disconnect between the amount you are charged as a customer, the amount of money you handover, and the change you expect to get - if you did not provide the exact amount in payment.  

It has always been the case that those selling on a table, or in a very small shop, might not have the exact change for you, but I often find that these are the very people who will ask you to wait while they go and make sure that you are given what is due to you.

Try a slightly bigger shop, or even a big supermarket, and I have several examples, and then the real palaver begins.  If you are lucky you will be asked "Do you have one cedi, and then I can give you five?"  At other times you will be told a price which is rounded up, so that the shop or the assistant will not be obliged to give  you some one Ghana pesewa coins which of course they do not have!  And sometimes you will just be told, "Sorry, no change" with the implication being that you just take whatever there is, and forget about the rest!   

On more than one occasion I have asked shop assistants whether they are not given "floats" at the beginning of the day, or even at regular intervals.   Responses can vary:  a blank stare is one, another is "it is finished", so the buyer is left annoyed and frustrated.

One of my responses, simply because I know the above is going to happen, whether at ShopRite, Game, Sarlinesta or whatever, is to be prepared!  So instead of always relying on the more convenient ATM machines, I try to find time to go physically to a bank, and ask for a packet of 100 one Ghana cedi notes.  Plus coins - in  50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 pesewa denominations. 

Well, usually I manage to get the one Ghana cedi notes - though on my last visit to my main branch of one of the older banks, I was told there were no "ones" and when I complained, I was told that the currency was given to them by the Bank of Ghana so I should just take whatever there was.

Another, older bank is usually OK for whatever notes you want, plus coins, and they even manage to stock one Ghana pesewas which are almost a rarity these days. And for a while one of the newer "Nigerian" banks would even provide me with a packet of brand new notes :-).

Not too surprisingly my purse/wallet seems to get heavier as I try to anticipate my needs for change during my work and shopping days!

But for shops and banks and the Bank of Ghana:  have any of you heard of customer needs and wants?

Another Ghana moment?

Another "Ghana moment" - or should I say "only in Africa"? as the slot on BBC Network Africa goes?

On a recent weekend I did one of my normal cooking gas runs, as two of the three cylinders we use for cooking were empty, and with the holidays approaching, it was better to be sure of stock, rather than waiting till the last minute.   And then having to spend a lot of time looking for it when supplies are limited!

With the two cylinders rolling around a bit in the boot - I hadn't put the stone which was to stop them rolling in properly - I set off for the place I usually hit first.  Thinking why didn't I phone first?   I guess I still operate in the "old" Ghana style that you have to go somewhere physically...  that really shows how long I have been working the system here!

Anyway I got to the supplier, only to find a hand-painted sign on the gate saying "NO GAS".  But unlike some other occasions when this was the case, the gate was open, so I decided to go in and ask if the people around had any ideas where I could get gas.  Rather than telling me straight out where I could try, or that they didn't know, the guys hanging around continued to chat, though one of them did go into the office.  There must have been a signal because the next thing I knew one of them was asking for my cylinders...

And when I asked how come they were selling to me, with the sign indicating no gas, the response was "for special customers only"...  Hmmm...  The price was surprisingly the correct one, but I do have to admit I couldn't resist giving a donation to the "Christmas box" as a way of saving me having to roam around looking for the cooking gas.

Definitely a Ghana moment, almost reminiscent of the bad old days of shortages and kalabule!

Tangerines au naturel

I really do wish that I could plan and take photos so that I would be more prepared when I write something, but unfortunately this doesn't happen most of the time. I suddenly realized that it is tangerine time again, and I couldn't resist buying some last weekend when I was doing my onion shopping at Agbogbloshie market. I just took one and peeled it, and ate it section by section, dropping pips all over the front of the car, though! [TG it gets cleaned on Sundays though!] I felt a little guilty about the smell, but then I was the only one in the car, so why should I worry? I did wonder whether I was taking a risk though from the market, but crossed my fingers that my luck would hold!

One day I will look into tangerines in more detail, because it has always struck me as odd that they only flourish for a very short period even in what should be the ideal climate? Here of course they are not always orange on the outside, though the inside ranges from the pale to the deeper orange. Some are sweet, most have a sour edge which is a slight shock, but then somehow the mouth adapts, especially as one eats the whole section.

Is the wheel being reinvented every year?

I ask whether the Ministry of Education (as it is now known) [and yes, the link leads to a website which is still under construction, nine months after the present government came into power!] reinvents the wheel every year with regard to admission to senior high schools here in Ghana?

The computerised system is not new, and even if you have failures, does it take more than six weeks since the results were released by WAEC to do the placement?  For crying out loud, I suspect a manual system of slips and cards and assembling all the heads in one place would have solved the problem in much less time!  

An opportunity missed?

Last Saturday I went to Kingdom Books and Stationery (the major stationery shop/store in Accra) to stock up on materials for the coming academic year.   There were several obviously like-minded family groups checking out what there was to buy.  

Yet there was nothing in the store to indicate any kind of sensitivity to a large percentage of the buying or to the particular time of year.  No school calendars or diaries, not many pencil sets, hardly anything out of the usual, in my view.  Plus of course there was only one cashier serving the non-corporate customers, so ten to fifteen people waited patiently in line, without complaining (that I could hear).   It was quite difficult to find exercise books, and the options available didn't seem particularly different from previous months. 

Upon reflection, and in response to a discussion with a colleague, I wondered why it was that they did not seize on the time of year to put up a few signs, such as "Get your school supplies here"  "Don't forget xyz for your children"  etc... and maybe even putting together special packs to make the shopping easier, and of course to encourage people to spend more.   What about some special displays or promotions?  What about material specifically geared at a particular target market - or more precisely the parents and guardians who do their buying?  Was there any particular help or advice being offered by staff to customers?  Was the cashier happy to see people buying material, or just wishing that she could be chatting on the phone to her friends? 

It seems that opportunities upon opportunities were being missed, but then the philosophy of this store, as evidenced by the behaviour of its staff seems to be:  "Well, we are the big supplier in town, so you take what we have or just go without..."   And of course because there isn't any real competition the customers do keep coming - even if some of us are a little reluctant to do so very often. 

The only thing is that if an alternative comes - one which offers a range of products, with good customer service, and an attractive environment, then some of us will simply vote with our feet.  

Such a missed opportunity?

A license plate to die for?

Seen in Labone on a bluish purple Hummer

J.BOND 007 Y

Oh, how I wished I had my camera!

Water, water - not quite everywhere...

Last week or so was kind of a landmark: we got our first bill from Ghana Water Company in nearly two years! And surprisingly, or maybe I should say, not unsurprisingly, we were still in credit! Probably the latter actually, as we've had to buy water almost every week or ten days (the latter if we are lucky) for more than eighteen months, but for several months I paid something on account.

I had had actually had "Go to GWC and find out about bills" on my To Do list for quite time, but in the way of things, I hadn't done anything about it! Mainly I admit because our local GWC office is only open when I am at work, so if I really wanted to go there I would have to leave work early, and knowing my luck, I would get there only to be told that they had closed!

Together with the water bill, last weekend the pressure was sufficient for the water in the mains to actually come to the tanks on the top of the house - which was the first time this had happened in several months... and it actually happened twice. Unfortunately our tanks are a bit old, and the mechanism to stop the water coming in when they are full doesn't work properly, so usually I will hear the overflow and then go and turn off the tap - not too much fun if one is only half awake though! Not terribly efficient, but it does do the job. The question now is: should I get the plumber to come and see what he can do about making this automatic rather than done by a human being?

So, did we all think that our water problems were over, and that we would just have to monitor the days on which the mains served this area? Yes, of course... but we should have remembered where we were, because over the last few days, it doesn't look anything has come up so we'll probably have to order the tanker again...

Oh well, he will be happy.

Electricity palavers

If it is not one palaver about electricity it is another one!

Friday evening I came home - late, as I went somewhere - only to find the house in pitch darkness. The lights had been off since 3pm, and of course in typical style, all sorts of stuff had been left unwashed and un-put-away, as if the fact that there is no electrical power means that every single chore should immediately stop until daylight! And the power stayed off all of Saturday and all of Sunday, by which time I had to totally clean out one fridge, as the water was dripping out of the freezer all over the floor! [That should tell you something about the floor and how flat it is!] I was definitely in a bad mood by the end of the weekend, and did not feel at all relaxed, even though I probably slept more than usual!

Some members of the household went to neighbours and friends to recharge phones - the most urgent priority? Personally I was more worried about R at night; the rest of us could manage with torches or flashlights (depending on whether I am speaking British or American English) or the odd candle or the security lights from the next house - which is on a different line from us!

Monday morning saw three of us carrying rechargeable lanterns plus mobile phone chargers to work and school in the hopes that at least those venues would have light. They did, and sod's law also worked, the lights at home came back on. Big relief though.

What I did learn is that I could have phoned the ECG (Electricity Company of Ghana) call centre - whose number I did store on my phone - even at the weekend! I was quite shocked to hear of this, on Monday afternoon! Next time, not such a long wait, before complaining!

Traffic lights

I think non-functioning traffic lights are one of my real pet peeves about life in Accra. I know they run on electricity, and seem to be particular prone to short out or whatever anytime the electricity goes off, but I am continuously amazed at the cost in terms of property, and possibly lives by their not working.

I know some trotro and taxi drivers believe that traffic lights hold up traffic, but at major intersections, or when there is a lot of traffic trying to turn, I continue to think that they do have a positive contribution. How many times have I seen an accident which is often because someone misjudges a turning which would have been much clearer had the lights been working.

I know what it is like. It is really, really tempting to see if one can go quicker than someone else. But the consequences are not always pleasant! And let's face it you don't really save that much time when the lights are not working.

And what about all the police who have to be on traffic duty - or the National Youth Employment people (who used to be called Kufuor police)? Couldn't they be better occupied? Or maybe the feeling is that labour is cheap and if it is not there, the fittest will survive?

Fuel situation back to normal?

I should have written about getting fuel. In the end it wasn't that painful, even though I had armed myself with newspapers and two books - just in case I had to spend a really long time in a queue. Amazing what the distribution of 200 tankers can do to bring chaos back to the usual "situation normal". I wonder whether the impending arrival of Obama had anything to do with the rapid reaction?

Maybe I shouldn't be counting my chickens though, and should get my act together and make sure that I have a full tank for the next week or so of driving.

Will I get to work tomorrow?

I am not sure I will get to work tomorrow because of the fuel shortage. Yesterday there were queues (in some cases), agglomeration of vehicles (mostly) in the few stations that had fuel. Today there are the same, all in anticipation of getting fuel.

I filled my tank last Friday, and as usual I need to fill up... mainly because I put on a few more kilometres this week than usual.

Grrr... it just makes me so mad

NB photo is credited from the Myjoyonline website

Long queues in petrol stations - AGAIN!

It irritates me no end when I see long queues in petrol/gas stations - and know that these are almost always artificially created. Have we not got over this panic buying in anticipation of fuel price increases? Well, I guess we haven't...

But don't those responsible for setting the prices - the National Petroleum Authority (or whatever it is called now - I seem to lose track of all the incarnations) - know that in this environment you cannot let speculation take hold, or the rumour factories will immediate start operating, and then we the motorists and the users of any form of transport are once again "up the creek, without a paddle" or more appropriate with no fuel in our vehicles.

And will those who set policy and prices suffer, or spend time in queues? Not on your life. Those are the very people who have drivers who will go through the back door to make sure that "their" vehicles have fuel. After all, that is part of their job. Or rather it was in the bad old 1970s and 1980s.

Is it so difficult to monitor the world price of fuel on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and just act accordingly? Or is it such a political risk?

Ghana cedis NOT cedis

It really bugs me when I hear reporters/commentators/newspeople on local/Ghanaian radio and TV stations expressing expenditure in terms of cedis - and usually this is not millions, but billions, or even more.

Ghana switched currency from cedis to Ghana cedis in July 2007, and I would have thought that two years on, the media especially should be consistent in how they express amounts of money.

I suspect a lot of the time that this is done on purpose? perhaps to try and entice listeners, or readers (in the case of newspapers)?

A typical example [see Daily Guide of 18 June ]came up this morning allied to discussions about the amounts spent by the Ghanaian transitions teams earlier on in 2009.

If the media continues to use the old currency - and many are constantly putting over their roles as educators - when will the rest of us feel comfortable using the new one - except physically of course!

Water - steps to getting it through the pipes?

We've not had water flowing through our mains pipes for more than a year - due to construction of large pipelines from Weija in the west of Accra to the east of Accra. We saw the big pipes being put into the group - and in fact our road was blocked for a week. Then there were some technicians who did something like connecting smaller pipes to it, and then the road was covered, and ... and ... no water...

Except in the last couple of weeks there would be mornings when the road outside the house (not paved) would be covered in a large pool of water, which every single vehicle would try to avoid - not with much success I must add.

And then we heard that people from the water company were able to connect houses/compounds to the mains supply for a specified sum... We waited. And eventually someone in an official uniform showed up, named the amount, but when asked about an official receipt, the impression was given that there wouldn't be one.

D and others have been to the local district office of the water company to see if we can be reconnected officially. I dredged up some old bills - feeling rather guilty that I hadn't paid anything since September 2008. Not to worry: we were actually in credit! and officials even said they were impressed that we paid on account so regularly.

But have we been connected yet? Noooo... not yet.

The saga continues, and we will buy another tanker load of water at the weekend. Sigh.

Exchange students and gender balance

I remember reading a blog (http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/2008/07/giving-back-volunteers-flood-into-ghana.html) which commented on volunteers coming to Ghana during summer holidays and being struck at how true this seemed.

Last semester was an extreme case at the institution where I work - with less than 10% male visiting exchange students - and though this semester there are more males, the percentage isn't that much over 20%. I asked one of the students why she thought this happened, and she made the comment, passed on from someone who had made some kind of study of this, that the males like going to Europe!

I wonder whether this is an indication of the feminisation of development - and I am not criticising this by any means, but I do wonder whether this is a trend which will continue in a job market. I think I will ask a bit more, as this does intrigue me.

Ghana presidential runoff elections

The presidential runoff elections here in Ghana are taking place on Sunday 28 December, and I am still ambivalent as to who should win. I don't have the right to vote, but I can still express my opinion. Once again the "special" elections which were held earlier in the week for those who are on duty on the actual election day seem to have had some issues - mostly in terms of much larger numbers of people voting than in the previous time.

Then there is the business about the borders being closed from Friday. I don't understand why this was necessary, though I suppose it is better that it is all of them rather than just those with Togo! I guess it just means that some people will slip in on the unauthorised routes - instead of doing it legally.

And there are other worrying stories - not proven, but discussed at length on the talk shows - which seem to indicate that both the NPP and the NDC are really desperate to win. And will they accept the totals that are released by the Electoral Commission? Or will there be cries of "we wus robbed!"?