…As customers now prefer superstores, pharmacies
By Olakunle Olafioye
Neighbourhood retail outlets in Lagos State are disappearing. They are facing stiff competition from hypermarkets and pharmacies, which are making fast and pacey inroads into communities hitherto considered exclusive to small-scale retail outlets. In the same manner the proliferation of bigger pharmaceutical stores is chasing traditional chemist shops out of circulation.
Unlike in the past when distance was a factor, local consumers can now breeze in and out of a supermarket in their neighborhood to make little purchases as modern superstores are springing up everywhere.
Mrs Afolabi Kehinde, a resident of Omorege Street, in Alagbado area of Lagos, was sighted at one of the two new superstores along AIT Road where she had gone to procure toiletries last week.
She told Sunday Sun that she had been attracted to the two superstores since they were located in the neighborhood.
“I come over to this place for my purchases because it is very close to where I reside. Its closeness to my house is one of the reasons I patronise this store,” she said gleefully.
Before the coming of the superstore to the area, Mrs Afolabi said she was a regular customer at the few retailing shops and kiosks in the area.
But her patronage at those shops and kiosks shifted to the superstore as she claimed to have stronger confidence in the superstore than the street corner shops and kiosks she frequently used before.
Given their large store size, superstores have been positioning themselves as a one-stop store where consumers can do all their shopping.
However, relatively few Nigerian consumers had patronised them until recent years owing to the feeling that only few people could afford to buy in bulk. But a sounder reasoning, appears to prevail now.
At Ipaja- Command, Lagos, Miss Esther Afuye said that the coming of two pharmaceutical stores to her neighborhood has put a stop to her patronage of chemist shops for over-the-counter drugs despite having one (chemist shop) almost across her place of abode. To her, the opportunity of meeting a pharmacist, whom she could relate with and get professional advice about the drugs she intends to buy is one of the lures to the pharmacy.
But beyond the proximity and the opportunity of getting experts’ opinions on products, findings by Sunday Sun revealed that the fear of going home with fake products could be the major reasons many customers are ditching neighborhood retail outlets for the ever-growing superstores and pharmacies in most communities in the state.
Nigeria’s running battle with fake products, especially pharmaceutical products and consumables has lingered for a very long time resulting in the establishment of agencies saddled with the responsibility of fighting counterfeiting, including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and the Standards Organization of Nigeria, SON. However, despite the existence of these agencies, fighting counterfeiting remains a major challenge in the country.
Recently, NAFDAC alerted the nation to the circulation of adulterated beverages in the country.
The Director General of the agency, Mojisola Adeyeye, said that personnel of the agency swooped on factories in Abia State and shut down several illegal markets suspected of selling adulterated beverage.
Adeyeye said that after an intelligence tip-off, the agency discovered that the dastard activity had been going on for a long time with the perpetrators operating like a cartel and threatening anyone who dared to challenge them.
According to a World Health Organization’s (WHO) report, about 64,000 to 158,000 people die in sub-Sahara Africa every year from taking fake anti-malaria medications alone.
Not long ago, another report by Bloomberg identified Nigeria as the most counterfeit market in the developing world.
Last year, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA), also disclosed that over 70 per cent of medicines being dispensed in the country were substandard.
Every year, agencies of the government including NAFDAC, SON, and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, destroy fake and substandard products often valued at several billions of naira.
Between 2015 and 2017, the government was said to have destroyed N29 billion worth of fake drugs and set up the Anti-Counterfeiting Collaboration of Nigeria (ACC) as part of efforts to tackle the menace.
The majority of people who spoke to Sunday Sun among them those who patronise superstores and standard pharmacies said that their preference for superstores and pharmacies over smaller neighborhood retail outlets was borne out of the conviction that the tendency of procuring fake and substandard products is relatively low.
“I stopped patronising roadside shops because of my experience with fake and expired products. Most times it escaped my mind to check the expiry dates of products at the point of purchasing them and because of that I had gone home on a few occasions with expired products which the sellers would either deny selling it to me or refuse to change it for me when returned. There was an instance I bought a product that turned out to be fake. So, I returned, but the seller turned it to a fight. These are some of the reasons I do my shopping at major superstores,” a respondent who simply identified himself as Kazeem explained.
The reasons for Mrs Cherish Uwada’s preference for superstores and pharmacies for her shopping and pharmaceutical needs are similar to those adduced by Kazeem.
Additionally, however, Mrs Cherish said that she gets cheaper prices from superstores and pharmacies compared to the prices offered by street shop operators.
“I prefer coming to superstore for groceries because I get them at cheaper prices here and also because hardly would you pick expired products from stores because their turnover rate is very high unlike at local shops where the sellers might retain the same stock for months and would still insist on selling it at higher prices until the products expire,” she said.
But not many would agree with Uwada and Kazeem. Those who disagreed with the view that expired and substandard products are commonly associated with street corner retailers said cases of passing off of products and the sales of expired products also come from mega stores and pharmacies.
A resident of the state, Seun Oladiran, said that he had once procured a supplement from a neighbourhood pharmacy only to discover that the product had expired after he experienced an unusual side effect.
“I later checked the pack for its expiry date, but I noticed that it had been cleverly scraped off as if that part of the pack where it (the expiry date) was printed had been affected by water. The manufacturing date was intact, but the expiry date had been tampered with. I went back to the store to buy another one and discovered the same foul play. So, it is not always true that expired or substandard products are not sold at these big stores and pharmacies,” he claimed.
Although many small-scale shop owners expressed the fear that the spiraling and springing up of superstores and pharmacies in many neighborhoods is a threat to small-scale retailers, they, however, believe that their accessibility to residents and their long hour of operations give them some edge over these bigger outlets.
“The nearest pharmacy to this place is about five streets away. Moreover, their closing hour is 9:00p.m whereas I operate till 12:00 midnight. So, I still make good sales regardless,” a local chemist shop operator in Alakuko area of the state quipped.