Illegal night bazaars rule the roost as new currency woes hit traditional stores in Zimbabwe

Traditional stores struggle to survive as the volatility of Zimbabwe's new currency, ZiG, pushes prices up

Harare (Zimbabwe): Batsirai Pabwe picked detergents, toothpaste, snacks and some pasta among several grocery items spread on the tarmac of a car parking space — an unorthodox night bazaar lit by cellphone flashlights and fluorescent lamps in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

Traditional stores are struggling to survive as the volatility of Zimbabwe’s new currency pushes prices up. Many like Pabwe now shun them for much cheaper informal markets that pop up at night to avoid the glare of authorities.

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From dusk, sidewalks, store or office verandahs and car parking spaces burst into unorthodox open-air bazaars, offering anything from groceries to fresh meat, electronics, clothes, medicines, fashion accessories and stationery.

Unfettered by expenses such as rising energy costs, taxes and laws that force formal retailers to accept the local currency at artificially low official exchange rates, informal traders, including children, offer better bargains. A box of juice that sells for $3 in a supermarket costs half of that on the street.

The once-prosperous southern African nation of 15 million people in April introduced a new gold-backed currency called ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold, to replace one that had been battered by depreciation and often outright rejection by the people.

It is the country’s sixth attempt at a new currency since the spectacular 2009 collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar and adoption of the US dollar as legal tender amid hyperinflation of 5 billion per cent, one of the world’s worst currency crashes to date.
The US dollar has since remained legal tender alongside successive local currencies.

The latest currency, the world’s newest, came with pomp and fanfare — promotional catchy jingles and songs played repeatedly on public radio, television and online.
Seven months on, the ZiG seems to be tanking, like its predecessors. The gap between official and black market exchange rates continues to widen, with many people and informal traders who dominate the economy again preferring the more stable dollar.

Traditional stores, forced by authorities to charge using the local currency, are increasing prices to make ends meet. But they have also become uncompetitive against unregulated informal markets, the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe, an industry representative group, said in September.
“Everything is against their survival. The informal sector works at night, (if there is) no electricity they use their phones, they don’t care. They are there for survival,” Mugano said.

“Business is booming,” said Oswald Gari, a vendor, adding that he only works at night when the police leave.

More than 80 per cent of Zimbabwe’s employable population ekes out a living in the informal sector, according to official figures and the International Labour Organisation.