Foods & Supplies: The Shelves

One year can make a difference, indeed.  

Though the country continues to progress and regress in a variety of ways since the 2008/2009 "Imbalance," as it is called by locals, a number of changes are detectable just within our past year living in Zim.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, the country went through a period of empty grocery stores, out-of-control inflation, farm take-overs, and currency problems. During that time the population survived by crossing borders, or paying others, to purchase goods in other countries and haul items back. Though unemployment remains high in 2013 (95%, according to CNN!), the economy has leveled out.  And although it may be hard to feel this real-life progress in a number of ways, grocery shelves may speak louder than any news report can.

Last August we entered the country somewhat satisfied with the products available to us. Stores that literally only carried ketchup and beans among empty shelves in 2009 had recovered enough that they were able to stock more and more products as the months went by.  We found shelves full, though at times there were entire aisles full of the same product (usually soap), displayed one or two bottles deep.  

 

(here, an entire aisle is full of dish washing soap and another is full of toilet paper... yet the baby cart would indicate the previously upscale nature of this store)

Variety and brand choice was not an option. And staples like flour, sugar, and bread could not always be counted on.  This we found most challenging. We expected not to find specialty things like make-up or toothpaste.  But it was difficult to go to the store and find out they were out of something like flour or sugar for another three weeks.  

Jonas' birthday last October was memorable for me.  That's because I spent much of the day looking for one staple: sugar.  Unable to finish Jonas' cake, I trudged to four different stores until I finally found a bag a few kilometers farther than my feet could carry me.  "Sugar?  The stores did not order enough sugar? How is that possible?!" I grumbled as I sweated between stores.  The next time I saw sugar on a grocery shelf, I felt compelled to buy five bags... which everyone else did, too...  And hence the stores would run out for another three weeks!  

A trip to the store was always hit or miss.  And this meant hoarding when we found things.  We used to joke that the stores never reordered fast selling items because that meant more work for them.  "Ugg- we always have to re-stock that flour.  Let's just stop ordering it."  And that, in a nutshell, is the business sense one can often encounter on this amusing continent.

One year later I can smile about trudging along to find groceries.  Because the shelves are different for sure.  If you lived in Zim during The Imbalance, you would have wanted to be a travel agent or a deep-freeze salesman.  Three years later, you would want to be opening a grocery store.  Though we can't count on every product being available, the staples are dependable. South African chains are starting to move in.  Choices abound. And shelves are full.  

 

(here, at a newly opened South African chain store in Zim, options are growing.  Though our choices are hilariously strange at times, we have choices none the less!)

One of the biggest questions that friends, used to seeing reports of African famines on their televisions, ask us about Africa is our food supply.  My answers do not speak for the continent entirely, but rather just our one year in a rapidly changing Zim.  My answers are entirely different now than a year ago, as we watch (and eat!) the recovery that is happening daily on the shelves around us.  Stay tuned for more thoughts about food in my upcoming posts...

* * Please note that this blog is never intended to provide or participate in political commentary in any way. * *