Under the system of socialist one-party rule that ended in the early 1990s, commodities such as chocolate and Coca-Cola were beyond the means of ordinary Zambians.
Such little luxuries were instead the preserve of the rich and powerful. Most citizens had to queue, sometimes for days on end, to get their hands on subsidised staple maize, cooking oil and poor-quality washing detergent.
Strict exchange controls allowed high-profile business people with links to the government opportunities to shop abroad, buy imported foods, clothes and appliances locally or in better-off neighbouring states.
Today, nearly 15 years later and under liberal economic policies, Zambians have choices.
Imported foodstuffs are cheaper than locally produced foods. Shopping malls have sprung up in and around the capital, Lusaka, radically transforming the once-socialist Southern African state. Supermarkets, retailers and exclusive boutique shops have sprung up on land where bush and unused land once stood.
These have brought not only chocolate and Coke, but a whole variety of never-before-available household commodities, brands and services and, as Zambians believe, ”freedom”.
Growing middle class
The impoverished and donor-dependent country has seen the rise of a new and growing middle class that has taken to internet cafés, restaurants, coffee shops, fast-food outlets, hypermarkets, pubs and beauty salons with delight.
With the advent of multiparty rule in Zambia came a raft of harsh economic reforms and liberal policies in 1991. These moves unleashed a steady inward stream of goods and services from South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Far and Middle East.
Chinese, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Iranian and Egyptian traders have also found their niche in the Zambian consumer market, joining Indian traders with operations in Zambia that date back to the early 1960s.
David Sampa recalls having had ”the privilege” of life under the socialist state.
”You had the money, but you did not find certain goods then. Now you have the money and are able to look for what you can afford,” the civil servant says.
A handful of city markets still attract most of Zambia’s poor. But even here, variety has been boosted by cheap Chinese and other imports. High piles of used clothing and local agricultural produce are a common feature at the City or Soweto markets.
Shopping malls
People living in rural areas have increasingly included shopping malls such as Lusaka’s Arcades Mall as a high point of their travel to big cities.
Ackson Kaonga regularly travels the 720km from his home in Mpika, north of the Zambian capital, to shop at the Arcades Mall.
”Some things are much cheaper here than other places and there is no need for me to spend more money getting from one place to another … I can get everything under one roof,” he says.
For some Zambians who have tasted the pleasure of air-conditioned, indoor shopping, markets have become too grimy, inconvenient and ”downmarket”.
”Town is too crowded,” says Carol Mudenda, a Lusaka housewife. ”And where would I leave my kids while I do my shopping? Here I can drop them at one of the fun centres and I don’t have to worry much about my car. There is more security here,” she says, speaking at Manda Hill Mall in downtown Lusaka.
The government is considering an extension of daily trading hours beyond 5pm, reportedly in a bid to boost the economy.
However, this looks set to result in a major showdown with trade unions that say Zambians don’t have the money the state is targeting in the struggling economy.
”In a liberalised economy, what we would like to see are more places like this catering for different economic groups,” says Neo Simutanyi, a lecturer at the University of Zambia.
Shopping malls, he notes, will cater for ”a particular class”, adding that the majority of Zambians may not be able to access such places.
”They simply cannot afford it,” he says. — Sapa-DPA