01 Sep 2014

Tuck shops, commonly known as dimausu, are businesses that have for many years operated from households, villages or in townships ’open areas all over the country.

These businesses and their owners refused to disappear when big retail companies tried to out compete them in the grocery business.  However, they became the distributors for those retailers in locations and villages where the big retail companies could not reach their customers.

In an interview recently, Mr Mmoloki Makgatle, who owns a grocery store at Monarch location in Francistown said he had been running his business from 1996 to date.  

Mr Mokgatle stressed that he inherited the business from his mother who passed on in 1995 and was hence forth forced to be the breadwinner and provide for a family of six.

Moreover, Mr Mokgatle stressed that the business had been providing for his family for more than 15 years and he managed to send all his children to school. 

He, however, decried the fact that  his competitors prefer selling vegetables only, mentioning that he has diversified his sales from selling vegetables to cooking fat cakes, fresh chips, chicken feet, boiled eggs, soup and firewood, stressing that the latter is in high demand and has turned his store into a fast food quick shop.

However, Mr Mokgatle stressed that owning a grocery store is demanding since one has to wake up around 4am to prepare dough for students and workers and knock off around 8pm, stressing that one has to be dedicated if he or she has to succeed

Furthermore, Ms Keatlaretse Mosweu an owner of a grocery store at Dumela Industrial said she specialises in selling foodstuffs, especially breakfast and lunch for industrial workers. 

Ms Mosweu said her business has been running for more than ten years and the future looks bright.

 She, however, decried customers who buy on credit and take long to pay, stressing that those customers disadvantage her daily operations, since she has to stock at retailers where there is no credit facility.

In addition, 54 year old Ms Kefilwe Zacharia who owns two grocery stores decried an influx of big retail stores, stressing that their customers prefers to buy from those stores in bulk and that affects their businesses negatively. 

She stated that although their stores operate as middlemen for big retailers, they are sometimes forced to sell at retail price in order to meet their customer needs. 

She, however, stated that she has complemented her store by importing vegetables from South Africa and is selling them to her competitors and that has improved her business. ENDS