A spaza shop in Joe Slovo Park, Cape Town (WikiMedia, CC3.0)
How many South Africans buy their daily bread from smaller spaza shops, and how many people will never have the experience of spaza store shopping in their lives?
Spaza shops are described as informal traders, operating smaller stores from homes or containers. However, spaza shops are also defined by much more than their one-sentence dictionary definition – and if you want to know more about the area you’re in, head to the nearest spaza for directions, cigarettes or impromptu discussions.
I’ve often bought from smaller, local stores for necessity and convenience. Eggs, bread, shortbread biscuits, cigarettes, Lunch Bars or Bar Ones – spaza shops are often basic but necessary when you’re more than a walk or taxi trip away from larger retailers (in “town”).
There’s something revealing about Africa’s economy, culture and food at every store. Here’s why spaza stores are integral and what makes them important to the whole South African experience.
The basics of buying
Larger stores have bulk-buying power and sheer size on their side, and you can buy 20 different brands of eggs or your choice of washing powder. However, larger stores have the distinct disadvantage of being further from most homes than most spaza stores are.
A spaza store usually opens early, attracting the day’s first workers, who buy their airtime, food, snacks or energy drink to start their day. Early morning visitors are most likely on their way to work, while some head back home or find their way to the taxi rank. Fresh bread is best bought during early trips, soon after the vans have arrived to deliver the day’s fresh stock. In the afternoon, bread is the first essential that sells out.
Spaza stores sell the basics, like bread, milk, eggs, vienna sausages and cheese slices. Manufacturers have started taking advantage of spaza buying power, and many items are more likely to be found in forms of individual packaging, for example, single packets of headache powder as opposed to packs of six, or single-serving dishwashing soaps or butter packets.
Some spaza stores branch out into baked goods, getting fresh deliveries from nearby bakeries. Snowballs and cake slices are common, and cookies are sometimes sold from a bucket and charged by the cent. I don’t believe you’ve quite experienced snacking on the African continent until you’ve embraced, at least once, a magwinya filled with chips.
Informal traders serve the community’s most essential needs, and they’re as much of a gathering place as they are stores. Unfortunately, informal traders are also the closest when conflict or strife strikes. During July 2021’s serious civil unrest, informal stores were looted (BBC News). I overheard someone telling a shopkeeper, “When people were looting, I didn’t come to your shop, did I?” The shopkeeper responded, “I don’t know that; there were a lot of people. I am now scared of everyone.”
The majority of spaza stores are encased in heavy iron cages, and items are passed through a small slot – this is a precautionary measure; however, not all stores are thus equipped. One should admire shopkeepers for their dedication, often keeping stores open past daylight hours for small conveniences, and being ready to do it again the next day – come rain, shine or unrest.
Why the spaza is an important cultural stop
The first reason you’d visit a spaza store is to do your basic shopping. However, the second reason to visit your local store is connection. Someone can’t know their community without being integrated somewhere where the community frequents. The store brings mothers, children, teenagers, workers, hustlers and other integral community members to one place.
Stop and buy a few cigarettes or snacks, and you’ll soon find your way to the local pulse of your town. Ask around, and you might discover restaurants or friends you never would have found before. It is estimated that it takes the length of about one cigarette (or well-rolled joint) to find your feet and discover something new about your area. If you aren’t a smoker, you’re forgiven for choosing an energy drink or snack.
It’s a rite of passage to answer questions, at least the first time: where do you come from? Why have we never seen you here before? Where are you going, and do you have any nearby family or friends? Ask questions in return, and it becomes a good way to get to know your neighbours – more than if you had just stood in line at a grocery store.
Rarely, someone leaves their mark on the store’s walls, though it’s often repainted just as fast as it happened.
Spazas aren’t just about the power of basic buying, but the power of connection.
Simple eats
Some, though not all, have branched out to selling some of southern Africa’s simple eats, made or manufactured in the small store environment. Visitors can sometimes find fried chips, magwinyas (vetkoek), hot dogs or fried sausages. Other times, small restaurants attached to the spaza store might provide warm meals like pap with chicken or beef curry – a comforting meal on most days.
If you’re in the mood for adventure, enquire about the nearest fire, where you might be able to try skewered meats (yes, including chicken feet) straight from the flames. Especially when you’re on the move from one place to the next (or on a deadline), a quick snack from a place you’ve never heard of can be the reset that you didn’t know you needed.
Spaza stores and the economy
Spaza shops power the economy, and they’ve finally risen to be considered by corporations and the government as an integral link in the larger supply chain. The Spaza Shop Support Programme provides financial assistance for established stores, allowing many people to continue earning their livelihood even when the larger economy makes it difficult to be a business owner.
Shops have easier access to “cash points” (“swipe machines”) through services like Kazang, making them popular and cashless. The same machines add the ability to purchase airtime and vouchers.
Some stores are sponsored, painted with the name of the sponsor of their container in return for assistance. Smaller stores are also being given more buying power, such as with Shoprite’s “digital boost”, allowing spazas near main stores to request deliveries (Moneyweb).
When last have you stopped by your local spaza store, rather than buying the same items at a mainstream retailer?
