Too much

Too many. Promotions. Kenyan businesses seem to be obsessed by them. Guys like Safaricom have a promotion or other going all year round. Remarkable. I guess guys in marketing departments have to do something to justify their salaries. And budgets.

But those weren't the promotions that got to me this past Saturday. Although they should. I never win anything after all. Hardly know anyone who does. And all those swa names they come up with for the competitions. Sometimes I think that's a competition in itself. Who can come up with the most esoteric word to use, germane or not.

Anyway. So I was making an outing to the supermarket. Needed some batteries. As I neared the entrance, I was almost stopped in my tracks. Fear. All over the place, left, right, ahead, promo gals standing about. In their promo T-shirts with tables of their promo stuff. There was one table with promo guys, but I think that was a bank selling loans or something. So none of it was entirely new. None apart from the the sheer numbers. I'd already had to perform evasive maneuvers to get past the Orange gals 100m back, and endured those who were trying to get me to buy nail cutters through some magic pata potea like scheme which I've never understood. Never paid enough attention to understand.

Now I was being confronted by a mob almost. Wanted to turn around and run. My usual tactics of putting on a mean face or pretending to read an sms or something weren't going to be enough here. I really hate being hassled. If I'm interested in something I'll come over and find out more. If I pass on by, or look like I'll pass on by, I'm fine. You need not jump in to explain how lovely the product is or the out of this world nature of the offer. It's employment creation I guess, and it can't be an easy job so more power to the gals. Perhaps bombarding people with all sorts of marketing stuff does work.

Another thing. Why do people do all their shopping at the end of the month. I now know one more place to avoid at end-month, in addition to banks. Why buy all the stuff you'll ever need ever on this one day. Guys had literal trolley fulls. Two trolley fulls. They're definitely paying with plastic those ones. No way you can walk around with enough cash to buy all that stuff. Why endure having to haul all that stuff about. It's not like they won't step into a supermarket again the rest of the month. Nor could it be that salos have just checked in so now is the only time they have money. You can't be living hand to mouth with that kind of shopping. If you really have to buy everything at one go why not do it at mid-month. Shorter lines.