This article first run in the New Vision on Friday July 31st, 2020
Early this week I got a message that one of the more popular photography printing companies in Kampala was now accepting printing orders online, and would deliver the finished, printed and framed photographs to your door. I have always used the folks at Shetty whenever I needed photographs printed, but it was always a nightmare to go there.
Their premises are on Wilson Road, where for some reason all the photography shops are. You can find almost everything concerning photography and equipment there, and at times folks have recovered their stolen cameras from one shop or another; but that’s a story for another day. In the days when cameras could still be repaired by local jua kali fellows, Wilson Road is where we took our cameras to be repaired. But with the latest hi-tech digital cameras, now we send them to South Africa or Dubai.
Getting to Wilson Road is problematic, not least of all that you have to get past City Square. And that means negotiating past almost all of the taxis in Kampala, which for some reason congregate there. With their disregard to anything orderly, getting past them is not for the fainthearted. That junction of Kampala Road, The Square 1, Burton Street and Johnstone Street can add years to your life in just a few minutes. Hint: after KCCA is done with banning bodas from the CBD, taxis should be next.
So I don’t go to Wilson Road unless it is very, very urgent. That is why I got excited when I received that message that Shetty is now taking printing orders online, and had even developed an app for that.
A few days later I read that Amazon UK is offering free grocery deliveries for its London customers, which is causing panic among major supermarket chains in the UK. With the depressed demand caused by covid-19, the last thing they wanted was a major competitor entering the market.
In the post-covid world, most goods and services are going to be delivered to customers’ doors, often at no extra charge. So, Shetty is doing it in Kampala, Amazon is doing it in London – where are the others?
I prefer getting some of my groceries from Shoprite, because they have a higher quality standard than the neighbourhood duuka. And they don’t stock cheap stuff from China or Dubai. But getting there is becoming a headache, so I wish they also got that app thing running.
During the lockdown, I got most of my groceries delivered to my gate, and that has not changed much. And it’s all fresh, too. From tomatoes to mangoes to greens to freshly dressed chicken, it all comes to me. Except beef, because it is difficult have to find a butcher to trust. I still have to go to a supermarket for spices, but I’m soon growing those in my backyard, anyway.
I love reading, so for as long as I can remember I have been buying at least two novels every month. Some from Aristoc, when I can find a good day when the crazy traffic around Garden City won’t give me a seizure; but mostly from Amazon, which get delivered after about two weeks.
I preferred Amazon because you can go online and find what is available, how much it costs (plus delivery fee), and how soon I can get it. Sadly, you cannot do the same with Aristoc. During the lockdown, they put out contact numbers for any possible orders; but without knowing what is available, I doubt if that worked out much.
There is a book I wanted, one of the series I was reading, and asked them if they had it. They got back to me that unfortunately they didn’t. So imagine my surprise when I finally got to the Aristoc store in Acacia Mall, and the book I wanted was on the shelves. These folks don’t even know what they have! Tsk tsk.
With international air traffic disrupted by covid-19, any order from Amazon probably won’t get here before next year. So surely this Aristoc’s chance to get their act together, develop an app where we can search for what they have, and they can deliver to our doors, or gates. Or partner with delivery companies to do the actual delivery. If I can pay delivery fees from London, I can definitely pay delivery fees from Garden City.
Remember those flyers that Game Store used to insert in the New Vision every Wednesday, announcing new deals? They were a real hit, and no doubt helped grow their customer base. Those flyers are now available online, so you can see what new deals are on offer; but you still have to get there, and manage with Kampala’s demon drivers.
The largest delivery company in Uganda is probably Jumia, but most of the stuff on offer is ‘shipped from abroad’; and the ‘international shipping fee’ is often twice what the items cost. Many of the ‘good’ items are actually available in places like Game, so why doesn’t Jumia partner with Game or Shoprite and deliver quality stuff to our doors?
A few years ago Malcom Muyinda had a company that would deliver groceries door to door; it was probably way before its time, because he gave it up after a while, mainly due to poor response. But it is time to dust off that data base, Malcom; the time is now, and the place is here.
Thanks to covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown and restriction on movement, we are now comfortable with things being delivered to our gates. Everyone with things to sell has to get onto the act, or risk being left behind. Those folks in the arcades that are forever crying over exorbitant rent and few customers, time to get your act online. Maybe you won’t even need that 2 x 2 metres space in the corridor to sell your goods, just space in your garage to store them, a Facebook page, and a regular boda guy. And you will be sorted.
Welcome to the brave new world post-covid.
kalungikabuye 