Monday 12 October 2009

Newcomers

Following Kajsa's lead, I too must recommend a new drink. Like with all other things, it's a bit exciting when there's something new in town to taste, try or visit. For me, the latest drink you'll find in my fridge, is Guinness new product: Alvaro. Available in two flavours, Pear and Pineapple, I can tell you that the pear flavour is scrumptious, taste very similar to Swedish Pear cider! The Pineapple flavour I'm sure is lovely too, I'm just not a big fan of pineapple flavoured things (except the fruit itself!).


Another newcomer in town is Lara Mart, located where Sotrek used to be, opposite Bywel's in Osu. It's nice to have another option to Koala in the area, the shop is well stocked, has nice neat aisles, a good meat counter and even stocks Apple Tango!


Customer service in Ghana is a whole topic on its own, but at Laramart I realised the best thing about it: Here, customer service is honest, not falsely friendly or giving well-rehearsed answers. As I drove up to Laramart, just to ask for directions to Sotrek, the security guard happily gave me directions to his employer's competitor and when asked whether Laramart actually had its own meat counter, he said: "yes, but I think Sotrek's is better"! (In my opinion, Laramart's turned out to be better.)

I decided to check out the new supermarket anyway and I was happily surprised. One staffmember approached me, was very helpful without being too forward, but as I made my way to the till, he asked "how do you find our prices, quite expensive isn't it?)!

I love the honesty! However, in both the guard's and the shop attendant's case I think they were wrong. The meat counter was good and the prices, although not cheap, were in the same range as Maxmart, Koala and Shoprite.

5 comments:

posekyere said...

Can you, Maya, imagine how Ghana will look like in, say, 10 years time? It'll be totally different, I believe.
More investments will flock in when investors come around and see that some things are already on the ground.
Kumasi, Takoradi and the other regional centers need to experience some of these developments for the transformation to spread out to all corners of Ghana.

Maya Mame said...

You're right Posekyere, just look at how different Ghana was in 1999! Takoradi, thanks to the oil finds, is well on its way to developing into the next metropolis. I was there last August and hope to visit again soon as I'm sure there have been more developments.

Abena Serwaa said...

Interesting revelations! I had never heard of Lara Mart. Well, I suppose it is out of my way though. I'm closest to Shoprite which I'm sad to say service is slowly slipping but prices are on the rise. The Lara Mart honesty is shocking but impressive!

You are right...Alvaro seems to be taking the market by storm. People love 'em! A tad too sweet for me though.

Kajsa Hallberg Adu said...

More new drinks to the people! I fully agree with you in the pear/pineapple issue.

Maya Mame said...

Lara Mart has only been around for 6-7 weeks so you're not too out of the loop, Abena.

I agree about Shoprite, it's such a shame that standards are dropping as prices increase.

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