Informal traders are 7% cheaper on average than large, formal retailers such as Shoprite, a survey by SBGS and informal sector activations firm Minanawe Marketing showed.
Informal traders are usually closer to the consumer, which saves her or him the transport costs.
About 20% of every rand spent in South Africa goes to informal stores, according to Nielsen research.
Foreigners - mainly Somalians, Ethiopians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis - run about 70% of informal stores in South Africa.
For his weekly business book review, The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviewed GG Alcock about his book “KasiNomics: African Informal Economies and the People Who Inhabit Them”.
GG Alcock is CEO of Minanawe Marketing.
Description of “KasiNomics” on Takealot.com:
KasiNomics attempts to cast a light on the invisible matrix at the heart of South Africa’s informal economies and the people who live in them.
Living and doing business in African marketplaces requires an ethos uniquely suited to the informal, to the invisible, to the intangible.
KasiNomics will take you down those rural pathways, weave between claustrophobic mazes of shacks, browse a muti market, visit a spirit returning ceremony and save money with gogo in a stokvel, among many more people and places.
After almost 20 years of focusing on marketing to the informal sector, GG Alcock, CEO of specialist marketing company Minanawe, showcases some ground-breaking and very successful case studies in this invisible informal world.
His vivid anecdotes and life experiences and how they link to understanding and inspiration for business ideas will make you gasp, laugh and shake your head in wonder.
For more detail listen to the interview in the audio below (and scroll down for quotes from it).
The muti industry is worth R3 billion a year…
— GG Alcock, CEO - Minanawe
We have this massive sector that we don’t know how to regulate. And we want to regulate it because we want to tax it…
— GG Alcock, CEO - Minanawe
You could halve that 27% unemployment rate if you took into account informal businesses…
— GG Alcock, CEO - Minanawe
The real losers are the formal retailers. The winner is the consumer… We should be looking at why they’re successful…
— GG Alcock, CEO - Minanawe
Are we supporting South African businesses?
— GG Alcock, CEO - Minanawe
Enjoy The Money Show, but miss it sometimes?
Get the best bits emailed to you daily, right after it ends:
Read More
![[BREAKING NEWS] Springbok legend James Small (50) has died](https://cdn.primedia.co.za/primedia-broadcasting/image/upload/fl_progressive,q_80/c_fill,g_faces,h_148,w_233/pbv9b9qsun34t6ksqnzk.jpg)
James Small suffered a heart attack and died at a Johannesburg hospital on Wednesday.
The African Union expects the African Continental Free Trade Area to boost intra-African trade by 60% in the next three years.
Bruce Whitfield interviews UDM President Bantu Holomisa and EWN's Kgomotso Modise about the day’s proceedings at the PIC Inquiry.
The two companies are running a 40-second advertisement. Branding expert Andy Rice is not impressed.
Magda Wierzycka – Sygnia’s renegade CEO – on her attitude toward money (hopes and fears, successes and failures, etc.).
The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield interviews Manie van Schalkwyk, Executive Director at The South African Fraud Prevention Service.
Popular articles
![[VIDEO] Boy kicking car after it knocks mom on zebra crossing goes viral](https://cdn.primedia.co.za/primedia-broadcasting/image/upload/fl_progressive,q_80/c_fill,g_faces,h_148,w_233/bgblk0hiwyurdpojqgli.jpg)
Khabazela shares tweets and Facebook posts that have gone viral.
The Springbok team can now charge way more than before for sponsored content that's posted on its official social media pages.
The 22-year-old, known now as Miche Solomon will be talking to John Maytham live on Cape Talk on Thursday 15 August at 4pm.
An open line conversation sparked debate around the development of the girl and boy child. Who takes precedent?
Azania Mosaka sits down with ex-Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa to reflect on his upbringing, political career and refined taste.
