Visit to the hardware “shop”

16 Aug 2010




Stalls are placed around an open center



I’ve been looking for F&F ever since we got here.  F&F is our trusted big handy hardware store in Howick, South Africa.  A hardware store that has always been, apart from the grocery shop, my favorite and most visited store.  But where is it in Abuja?  We dug out some screws and nails in a shop that sold lights – counted out on the floor between all the customers’ legs.  I explored other shops but finding things were a mission.  “We haven’t got” is the usual answer.



Last week when I asked Tyna where I could buy boards to paint on, she offered to go and show me.  Over a very bumpy road we arrived at a cluster of shacks around an open center area where we parked.  Some of the shacks had long lengths of wood, poles, flat sheets of paneled wood and basically all you needed for woodwork.  Other shacks had the tools: sand paper, nails, paint, brushes, glue, wire and even a few woks in between.  Each shack had a limited amount of stuff but all together you could probably find anything you needed.

My dear friend did the bargaining and I got my stuff for a very reasonable price.  On my own I would have probably had to pay double the price, because with a white face, arriving in a chauffeur driven car with the red number plate of the diplomatic corps, you are definitely on the losing side of bargaining.  A whole hoard of young boys gathered around the “shop” keeper and helped as he hack sawed my pieces into surprisingly accurate blocks. At the next shack we bought the sand paper.  I could even choose the gage and selected a fairly fine paper, which was rolled off and neatly cut. In no time I had my purchases and we headed back leaving me with the impression of a vibrant community working together to supply a need.  They might not have the big, brightly lit shop and the fancy tills but they supply what is needed in a friendly and helpful way.  As left, I noticed at the entrance a lone stall/trolley with vegetables on.  I could not wonder at the stall keeper’s initiative to come here rather than going to a vegetable market.  Of course she will have all these hardware stall keepers as customers who would not want to leave their stalls to go to the veggie market.  They will also be able to buy their veggies as soon as someone bought hardware from them before being tempted to spend it on something else.  And I wondered why other veggie sellers have not joined her or does she have an unwritten monopoly?  I wonder what are the grassroots rules and regulations about hawking.  There must be some, as there seem to be some order in who what and where they sell.  Or is it just how the free market organically develops according to the demand?



Tyna helping me to buy sand paper

Listening to a group of Nigerian businessmen last Sunday, who were discussing the disabling rule of the government as far as free business enterprise is concerned, I was prompted to ask them if it could change, thinking of all the promises of the politicians before the election.  The question was answered by derisive laughter. Obviously they did not expect any change in the frustrated climate of Nigerian business.



To give you an idea, to rent a shop in Nigeria is very expensive and you have to pay your whole lease of two years in advance.  A system that has probably developed from a lot of non payments in the past.  Of course once the owner has the money he is not going to spend it on upkeep so the shops all look dilapidated and run down. It is far more economical to build your own shack at the market, but even there paying for a site is based on the same pay in advance system.  As a result many hawkers have their own trolley pushcart shop which can be pushed to where the market is, without having to pay for the shop.  Some even carry their “shop” on their heads.



Maybe the hawker on the streets has more freedom.  And maybe that is why I can’t find an F&F hardware shop here.



The boys are keen to help sawing the board