An Accra Publication to Die For: "Consumer Focus"

We've all been there before: walking in town--perhaps a more up-market place like the Accra Mall or some place near Osu Re: and catching sight of a new publication.

Straight away, your heart beats that much faster, thinking "great, new stuff to read!" You take it home, and realise it's replete with mistakes the editor should not have missed, and that it wasn't that great after all.

Suffice-to-say, this rather-new publication falls outside that category.

This is the second time I am picking it up from Accra Mall. This time I took time to read some of the articles. WHat most impressed me was the letters section on pp.36-38. Just an insight for you:

Sorry Barclays, we deserve more!

Re:Stop Cheating us MTN

Bounced Visa on TTB/Stanbic

Shoprite, Quick Service Please!!!

I guess you're getting the picture: perhaps a glimpse of the general complaints the average Ghanaian goes through with banks and major retail outlets!

Still, with each of these, you get the magazine responding with an update that clearly shows they did some investigations for you, and that they actually spoke to the "defaulters" in question. In the case of SHOPRITE, for example, (something I have written about before on this blog), Consumer Focus magazine responds:

In the name of good CS, it would make a great deal of good if a desk/toll free line is dedicated to all those who patronize this shop...

I like the way the responses are long enough for you to realise the magazine did its homework to try to address your query.

Endorsed by the Food and Drugs Board, the page is divided thus:

EDITORIAL / FOCUS DIARY / COURTESY PAGE / FDB PAGE / COVER STORY / IRONY PAGE / FRANKLY MY DEAR PAGE

The Hotline is 020.808.55.18; email: consumer_focus AT yahoo.com.

My mission is to contact them and encourage them to set up a blog to maximize their outreach; possibly a FACEBOOK group; maybe a website?

This Accra-based publication NEEDS encouragement; they're doing swell. Let's begin to encourage them today!

Mid-Week Madness: UN's Still Coming to Town!; Shoprite Disappoints -- and So Do Their Salesgirls!

It was always too good to be true: a high-power retailer like Shoprite coming to Accra, and not taking Ghanaians for a ride.

For the past few weeks, I have been through Shoprite to meet only a scene like this mostly at the margarine/butter side. A quick glimpse reveals a full house insofar as margarine/butter is concerned. Move down a few departments, like the biscuit section, and you find that the shelves have been empty for a while. I have only complained to one or two people who have assured me it would be full up.

No such luck.

I'll have to bring you picture of the empty stores I'm talking about some time--'cos there are quite a few! Who's monitoring these things?

I am sure they will not be losing sales by any stretch of the imagination, but they must be putting those who patronise the shop off quite a bit! Not that I mind that they lose or anything, but I do wonder about claims of quality, where the provision of it is next-to-none.

Whilst we are at it, is it a quintessential Ghanaian trait for sales-girls working in retail outlets like these to not smile at you, at worst, and greet you at best? How long does it take to say "good evening", or "good afternoon". I've ended up a couple of times asking: "so you won't greet?".

To which they will grimace, or feign a smile and say "sorry, you were distracted", or "sorry, but you didn't see it", or some such excuse.

Until Ghanaians begin to demand quality service from them--even if they are under-paid--we will be worse off. I sympathise sincerely about the bad pay, and probably bad conditions of service, but this takes the biscuit!

You would at least expect a greeting, not silence for your goods to be passed through like robots. Robots, we are not, thankyou!



UN Still Coming to Town
The UN Conference on Trade and Development is still coming to town! It aint going anywhere. There are a number of interesting conferences and interactive seminars that will be held during the time. It appears, though, that some of these will take place during the official UNCTAD conference, scheduled for 20-25 April.

The emphasis on "official" is important, because it means that if you are not formally accredited to the main conference--and frankly, it's too late now--you cannot attend. All is not lost, however, for there is the civil society forum, which I mentioned in the last post, which you can access here. That means that any one of you--be you journalist or non-governmental organisation, or citizen--can register here.

All that said, I shall be at the heart of things during the period, and be sure to be blogging as avidly as ever!

Today's edition of the NPP-sponsored Statesman newspaper has an editorial on UNCTAD XII, in which the title appears to be a thinly-veiled exhortation to be vigilant about globalisation.