Africa’s supermarket revolution

To walk alongCEO the main road in Ruaka, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi, is to glimpse the extremes of African shopping. Market stalls selling vegetables and charcoal spill onto the street. In the distance is a plush mall with a Carrefour, one of 20 franchises of the French supermarket in Kenya’s capital.Further up, though, is a Quickmart. The Kenyan supermarket chain has 59 branches, an increase from 25 in 2020. It is not as fancy as the Carrefour, but nor is it as chaotic as the roadside kiosks. “We are a shop that is among the people,” says Peter Kang’iri, the . “That’s the difference.”