Shopping for staples, sustainability, and brats
Addis offers a bounty for certain shoppers. Are you looking for day after day of seasonal rain? We got that. Need a feral dog? They’re free for the taking and the limitless packs of them (when not outrightly intimidating) offer bonus cuteness. How about heaps of uncut construction rebar? The streets are full up on the surplus, and you can find colors that run the gamut from rusty to muddy everywhere. And if you’re ever looking for either a 1990 or a 2003 Toyota Corolla with a few hundred thousand kilometers and a custom paint job, look no further than on any block of this city of somewhere between 3.5 and 10 million people (estimates vary).
For just about everything else, however, Addis is a bit of a hard nut to crack in terms of shopping.
Whether enthusiastically or reluctantly, keeping the shelves at home stocked proves central to my daily gig. What’s far less understood and often challenging is the constantly shifting supply of staples (sugar, butter, cereal, toilet paper, vegetable washing bleach…the list goes on and on). People who’ve been navigating Addis’s complex commerce for longer than a few months typically offer creative and astonishing advice on where to find what and when. I’d estimate that maybe 10% of my daily conversations in some way veer into a discussion of where to shop for something. It’a a big game and we’re all playing it.
As a result, my family’s certainly adjusting our usual shopping needs from life back in the States. For me, I’ve replaced just about every hard to find item on my list with a personal fave - more coffee. And because I continue to take my coffee without milk, I’m seldom disappointed when searching anywhere for what’s on that day’s list. I am, however, now wildly moody. Plus, I’ve dropped around 5 kg in the past six weeks. The blend of this mostly-coffee diet, an almost constant “is he lost or just too cheap to pay for a taxi?” walking regimen, and intermittent bouts of explosive diarrhea really helps in pursuit of that slightly-leaner look.
The gate to the MIDROC headquarters.
In terms of actual shopping, however, we are lucky to live close to a pair of the better-than-average grocery and housewares stores. As I’ve learned, they are both part of a massive economic development under the broad ownership of Ethiopia’s richest man, Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi. His MIDROC Technology Group encompasses over 70 businesses, ranging from Ethiopia’s only gold mining operation to a home furnishings store named “Home Depot” that doesn’t seem to be a misprint. When I went to the most recently opened “Home Depot” to half-jokingly search for a computer printer (no luck) and potato chip bag clips (success!), I got a sense of just how broad and random the supply chain seems to be here. I’ll return to MIDROC at some point on down the line when I have a clearer understanding of their breadth of businesses and this man’s fascinating life story. If you want a good summary, just mosey over to Wikipedia. Fair warning - prepare to wander down a multitude of rabbit holes from there. Like I said, fascinating…
Lila Products founder, Gelila Shewaye, gives us an introduction while two of her artisans made jewelry.
Among the many things available from Ellilta Products were these awesomely arrayed scarves.
The entrance to The Craft Shop on ALERT’s campus.
Gabies (like all the businesses visited on our tour) has a bold philanthropic mission.
There’s much to find beyond the frustration of looking for Western-leaning staples, I assure you. Such as when I’ve been able to explore some responsible, forward-thinking businesses and charities around Addis. For example, I did a tour with a group of ex-pats on Monday that attempted to find local artisans who are making a difference with their purpose-driven wares. We visited Lila Products, Ellilta Products, a store within the ALERT Hospital and Training Center compound, and Gabies blankets (hover over and click on their names above for their web links). Each story deserves individual explanation and promotion. The larger point being that off the well-worn paths exist places to buy beautiful gifts worth giving that will also give back in ways that matter. I plan to visit these businesses again, after I take more time to check out their individual missions. We all need to think about not only where things come from but whether those paths are sustainable and helpful in an increasingly interconnected world. For every conglomerate like MIDROC, we should hope to find constellations of smaller stars around them like Lila, Ellilta, The Craft Store and Gabies.
On the opposite end of that socially-responsible spectrum of consumption, Sarah and I also filled our shelves this week with a visit to the U.S. Embassy. We’re still juggling some bureaucratic stuff…more on that later…that brought us up to the palatial Embassy grounds on the way to Entoto. We finally took someone up on the offer to shop at the Embassy’s Commissary store. To do so, you need an Embassy employee to vouch for you and escort you around at all times. The security is extensive…fully understandable when you learn there was just an Al-Shabaab/ISIS plot foiled by the Ethiopian security forces over the weekend…yes, true story. Anyhoo, our main motivation was a desire to find parmesan cheese for a meal Sarah plans to make for her fellows at our apartment this weekend. We were also still searching for that precious sugar we couldn’t find in our nearby stores.
When a taste of home isn’t quite enough to tide you over…
