Well Stocked

I couldn’t help but smile when walking down the baking aisle in Addis Ababa’s biggest and best supermarket/grocery store. The three of us were shopping for a long three-month stretch out in Gesas so we had a long list of supplies to buy and were already prepared for a double-shopping-cart spree. “Let’s see, according to this list we need three 5-kilogram bags of flour.” Ok, flour is one of those things that we actually have brands to chose from so I quickly scanned the prices until my eye was captured by one particular brand name – Wabko. “Hey,” I said to Andrea behind me, “I didn’t know that Wabco switched from making large dump trucks to now grinding wheat.” While Micah stared at me blankly, the joke was not lost on my wife who knew that my grandparents had worked for the Wabco company which has since been bought out by the now very well-known manufacturer of machinery, Caterpillar. Anyway, with Wabko flour’s competitive price, I plopped three 5-kilogram bags into my cart hoping that somehow I was supporting my grandpa’s pension plan. Moving along, we filled both of our carts without much of a problem and made our way to the checkout. Everything was nicely bagged up for us and so, pleased by the service, I tipped the young man who helped load it all into the back of our truck.

 

It wasn’t until we got home and I was recording our purchase in our financial notebook that I noticed a problem. For whatever reason, my Wabko flour had cost me over 750 birr (that’s almost $50)! Looking more closely, I saw that the checker-outer had scanned one bag and instead of typing in 3 for the number of pieces, she had typed in 15, which was the total number of kilograms. Now, as mentioned in a previous blog entry, there are no standard return policies here in Ethiopia and whoever came up with the ridiculous idea that “the customer is always right” would have been a terrible businessman in Africa. But, anyway, I thought, if anyone might have the slightest clue of these foreign business practices, it would be this fancy, new supermarket. So, I thought, a $35 refund was worth a try.

 

The next morning I drove across town and, with my three-foot-long receipt in hand, approached the worker I saw closest to the Wabko flours. With only one attempt at the explanation, she understood my problem and promptly led me to the cashier where the story was first repeated. Next, the manager-on-duty was called, the story was again repeated this time with the attention of many curious employees and customers. The manager then said “I am not the head manager, so come back on Monday morning at 11am and we will see what we can do.” I left hopeful, for no answer is often better than the immediate answer I was afraid I would find.

 

I obediently returned for my appointment and thankfully I found this same manager-on-duty. Upon seeing me with my LONG receipt in hand, she remembered, yet immediately apologized having forgotten to discuss my problem with the head manager. No harm done, for he was only in the back room and so, when he was called, I got to hear the explanation repeated a 3^rd time – great for strengthening my Amharic vocabulary. This was it, the top of the food chain and the point of decision. It was clear that he understood the mistake, but would he believe my story? He looked me in the eye and asked “What do you want?” Unsure of how to interpret that question, I asked for a refund. He thought for a bit before saying, “Refunds are difficult to do (because of the 15% sales tax having already been paid to the government), would you consider taking the additional 12 bags of flour?” Without Andrea’s voice of reason, I was pleased with the option of fair exchange, and besides I was funding in my grandpa’s retirement plan right? The stock-boy was called, a whole cart was filled with Wabko flour, driven straight past the cashiers and promptly loaded into the back of our truck.

 

I don’t remember the exact date of that adventure, but I do know that we are coming up on its one-year anniversary very soon here (it was early December 2010). So, how have we done? Well, those 75 kilograms (that is 165 lbs) have not only provided every gram of white flour we’ve used this year, but we are still sitting on seven unopened bags (35 kilos or 77 lbs). So, at that rate, it looks like we will be all set well into 2012. Anyone need flour? Could I recommend the Wabko brand? “I give you special price…”