How Ngara undercuts expensive city centre
Ngara traders are making a killing by offering Nairobi’s fashion conscious women better deals.
A trouser at a city centre boutique that goes for Sh2,000 can be bought at Sh300 at Ngara Market. Similarly, a designer dress that goes for Sh8,000 will be sold as low as Sh3,000.
The cheap pricing of their clothes is enticing women in their throngs and now term the market as their shopping centre.
Looking decent
This can be attested by the high number of shoppers at the market throughout the week and much higher during weekends.
Jacinta Njeri, a student at the University of Nairobi said she had mastered the trick of looking smart and decent.
“Before I go to shop for my clothes and shoes, I get into a shopping mall in town and check for the latest design that every lady is wearing. I then give it a week or so and I am sure to find exactly the same design in Ngara Market but at a much cheaper price. Afterwards, people think I am putting on very expensive clothes,” she said.
Njeri said the market had become a favourite destination for other university and college students.
“Together with my friends, we call it the ladies’ market,” she said posing, “why spend too much when I can get the same dress for far much less?”
And traders in the city centre are already feeling the pinch as more women look towards Ngara for all their fashion accessories.
Njoki Mbugua, an owner of a boutique on Tom Mboya street said more often, young women use her shop for price bench-marking.
“Occasionally I see the ladies visiting my shop looking for the latest design and asking for their prices, but rarely do I get any of them to buy the clothes,” she said.
Traders at the market are, however, only too happy to keep their prices low.
They said the only way to ensure their businesses grow was to sell at affordable prices, ensuring they made a little profit but selling more.