Trunk shows: real deals on wheels
The wares in Zimbabwe’s capital are laid out for shoppers to browse through: the shoes lined up on the trunk, the shirts and dresses hanging from open doors of the spotlessly clean car.
With many sidewalks in downtown Harare already taken over by street vendors and jobs scarce, some Zimbabweans are turning their cars into makeshift second-hand clothing and shoe stores, using parking lots, shopping malls and open spaces in low- and middle-income suburbs.
Every morning, Tony Machuko parks his sedan in front of a Standard Chartered Bank branch at a shopping centre in Southerton, a suburb on Harare’s outskirts, to set up his shop on wheels.
Clothing goes for anything from $1 (U.S.) for several undergarments to $10 for jackets, shirts, jeans, business attire and other articles carrying elite brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Armani.
Close to a dozen other sedans and vans are parked along a road at the shopping centre, all decked out with apparel and shoes for sale.
Machuko and the others had to set up shop on the city’s outskirts because other vendors on wheels had already grabbed parking spaces in town, and won’t allow newcomers to take their spots without a fight.
“Even here, we have to jealously guard against newcomers, even if it means using the threat of violence,” Machuko, 24, told a reporter, keeping an eye out for customers or police.
With no changing rooms, shoppers can squeeze into a car to try something on, or the hawkers hold a piece of cloth to shield the customer from public view. Or, the customer puts the article of clothing over whatever they are wearing to try it on.
Roy Chinamasa, whose “shop” is also at the Southerton shopping centre, said he makes up to $40 on a good day. The good thing about selling from a car is that “I can pack my wares and disappear fast whenever police pounce,” said the 22-year-old. “Business used to be good, but the dollar is just hard to come by these days.” The dollar might soon be even harder to come by in Zimbabwe’s depressed economy.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa recently said that the government plans to lay off part of its workforce, whose $260 million monthly salary bill gobbles up more than 80 per cent of total monthly government expenditure. He also said the government needs to devise ways of taxing the informal traders.
The African Development Bank says more than two-thirds of Zimbabweans are employed in the informal sector. Street hawking is a headache for authorities because of the congestion it creates and the lack of tax revenue.
Most of the clothing sold from the trunk shops are donated by Western charities to poor countries. Few shipments, however, are sent directly to this southern African nation, so they are smuggled through bush paths across the border from Mozambique.
The second-hand clothes are so inexpensive that sales of cheap Chinese knock-off brands in more legitimate stores are suffering. “Why should I buy an Abibas when I can buy an original Adidas for less, or a Mike when I can get a Nike?” said shopper Cardnus Fere, referring to imitations of popular brands.