Kenya’s largest supermarket chain, Naivas Supermarkets has stocked alcohol on it’s shelves within its newly-opened food market stores in an attempt to grow its revenue.
The family-run retailer which had 62 outlets as of March 2020 had held out venturing into the alcohol business since establishment and has now left Tuskys Supermarkets as the only top retailer not selling alcohol in the country
Naivas chief commercial officer Willy Kimani says the decision to start selling alcohol was driven by huge demand from the public in the last few weeks.
“The decision to set up an alcoholic beverages shop in our outlets was driven by customer demand,” said Kimani. “The typical customer wants to meet all their basket requirements in a single location and in order to facilitate customers so that they do not feel they have to move elsewhere for these purchases. We took the decision to set up and run the shops ourselves.”
Kimani says in order to sustain the family business, changes must be made due to the ever evolving customer dynamics.
Alcohol sales in supermarkets and wines and spirits shops have increased more than five times after the government issued a directive to close bars due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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