If you have ever visited a supermarket, there are those ladies that stand along some shelves with particular products, ready to convince you to buy theirs and not others.
It turns out that Naivas Maiyan branch, Ongata Rongai, mistreats them.
Read on.
Hi Nyakundi,
This is to highlight about how several staffers at the Naivas Maiyan branch are the rue of many merchandisers mostly through abusive and off-color sexist language towards female merchandisers and are always hell bent on getting cash from any merchandiser whenever they visit the outlet regardless of one’s financial state.
Now these said staff members could literally be fitting in a role as a Kenyan traffic cop. And it’s a culture that’s been embedded deeply in their psyche that it’s become like a right to them for you to part with not less than 50/- to 200/- whenever you visit that shop representing the supplier you merchandise for.
Many have come to state that they just have to part with whatever amount they are bullied into parting with so as to avoid the consequences of the staff members not placing orders for your products and even delisting some of the productions in that branch if you chose to not play along.
The grace bought with these bribes only lasts as long as your current visit and the next time you visit that shop the same staffers will still want money from you. One would think that they have some church building project or something that keeps guzzling the said funds it’s as if Naivas does not remunerate them well.
They take advantage of the control they have over the ordering processes and the display allocation over the subcategories within the shop and whoever plays ball will get preferential treatment sales numbers be damned because there’s always a competitor who’ll replace your product readily available.
Now the merchandisers with these complaints have evidence of recordings and mobile money transfers with their names. Their word is also final and taken as the gospel truth to their section leads and the management and for one to air this out would just make that work environment more toxic.
Now the rot is so pernicious to the extent that they rat a merchandiser out to his/her bosses whenever the merchandiser’s bosses happen to pop into the outlet and find that they are out of stock on key brands that they supply Naivas in this branch in particular. You’ll be labeled as incompetent amongst other choice words they’d have in store for you to your bosses and then they’d cause you to get fired. Others have been or get transferred to service other itineraries if you are lucky.
This is the proverbial sword of Damocles that has most of these merchandisers in fear of getting fired because it has turned into survival game for the most compliant bribe slave. Some of them have to visit that branch several times a week whilst others are stationed there on a daily basis.
I’m mostly writing this to get this branch to levels professionalism seen in other branches where camaraderie between the staff and the representative merchandisers leads to constant availability of goods for the valued shopper and more sales where both parties win.
I hope their HQ conducts a thorough investigation and end this vileness once and for all.
