By Anita Dangazele
- A small-scale chicken seller from Motherwell township in Gqeberha says customers ask her for credit because they could never try that with Spar or Shoprite.
- The seller limits credit to about 10% of her stock after a close relative refused to pay her back for two chickens bought before her Sassa payday.
A small-scale chicken seller from Motherwell township in Gqeberha knows her customers’ children, their problems and their paydays. But none of that guarantees she will get paid.
The trader says customers who would not dream of asking big supermarkets for credit feel confident enough to try their luck with her.
“The same people who can’t walk into Spar or Shoprite and say, ‘I’ll pay month-end,’ somehow find the confidence to try their luck with me,” she said.
She sometimes spots customers at the supermarket while they still owe her money.
“You see them at the supermarket holding groceries, smiling like everything is fine,” she said. “I don’t even ask for my money, but inside it’s killing me.”
Not every customer lets her down, though. Some wake her up early on payday just to settle what they owe.
“They pass by to pay before they even get home,” she said.
The toughest lesson came from my family. She broke her own rules for a close relative, an elderly woman who needed two chickens a week before her South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) payday. When payday arrived, the excuses started, and the woman asked her to come back the following month.
“I said she must keep the money if she doesn’t want to give it to me,” the seller said.
She gives chickens on credit because after six weeks, unsold chickens start cutting into profit.
“The longer they stay, the more feed they consume and the smaller the profit becomes,” she said.
She now limits credit to about 10% of her stock and only to customers she trusts.
Pictured above: Chickens in a coop.
Image source: Supplied
