Retail is too easy. Anyone can do it. Idi Amin was president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He died in exile in Saudi Arabia in 2003 aged 78. He promoted himself to field marshall and added several titles to his name. He called himself ‘His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshall Alhaji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE’. The CBE stood for Conqueror of the British Empire. His reign was characterised by human rights abuse, political repression, ethnic persecution, extraju
dicial killings, nepotism, corruption and gross economic mismanagement. These were his good points. Between 100,000 and 500,000 people died at his hands.
In 1972 Amin declared economic war and decided to expropriate businesses owned by Asians and Europeans. The bulk of these businesses were operated by Indians who held British passports. He then expelled about 80,000 Asians.
These people had run businesses both large and small which formed the backbone of the economy. When Amin took these businesses over, many of which were retail, he replaced the Indians with his cronies who knew nothing about retail.
Of course the Indians have always been shrewd traders. It seems to be part of their DNA. But the folks who replaced them were a different kettle of fish. They were extremely grateful to His Excellency and went about trading with gusto.
The stock flew out and they all did exceptionally well. The money flowed in and life was good.
When the stock ran out, they went to the government, as one does, and pointed out that they were low in merchandise and asked when the government was going to fill the shelves. To their dismay, they were told that this wasn’t part of the deal and that they should have put aside some of their takings to buy new stock rather than spending it all on women and drink. Shocked to the core, they moved on to other pursuits.
Idi Amin
A warung in Indonesia is a type of small family-owned business, often selling food. These folk usually have no education and yet they make a living from buying and selling. They may have a stall on a bicycle with a kerosene lamp selling anything from noodles to single cigarettes to air for your tyres or a litre of petrol in a plastic Coke bottle. But they have that innate ability to trade.
They know that they need enough cash to replenish their stock or they won’t have a business tomorrow. This is called cash flow in our elevated society, yet we often get it wrong and they always get it right.
How often does it happen that you hear of somebody who has opened a retail outlet and closed it again soon after. They have some money and retail seems like a good idea. After all, you only need to buy and sell at a profit and the difference is yours – almost Ugandan style. And yet so many people get it wrong, wrong, wrong.
In fact maybe it’s not that easy after all.
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing www.impactretailing.com.au and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702
