After two months since the announcement, finally today Thursday, December 9th, the Naivas supermarket is inaugurated inside the Oasis Mall in Malindi. The most important Kenyan brand of large-scale retail trade, the only real national competitor of the French Carrefour, is established in the space on the central Lamu Road where in the past other supermarket chains have not had good luck.
First Nakumatt, which had practically inaugurated the shopping center in Malindi in December 2012, then the unsuitable Ocean Grocer which had probably not probed enough the particular target of the town and finally the Tuskys chain which did not work badly but, as in the case of Nakumatt, suffered the repercussions of a reckless expansionism, wearing itself out slowly and closing its doors definitively a year ago, on October 4, 2020.
Now, after weeks of work on the adaptation of the premises, the opening of Naivas, which had already taken over the commercial spaces of Tuskys in Kilifi and other premises left vacant by other retailers such as Uchumi and Shoprite, returns to guarantee Malindi a commercial pole capable of satisfying all categories of residents and tourists, especially Kenyans, as even in the other 78 locations in the country Naivas has a tendency to conquer the local market, as opposed to Carrefour which seeks an international and higher level clientele.
But the strength of Naivas, as has already been noted on the coast in Kilifi and Mombasa, is that it offers a bit of everything, from fresh produce to vegetables, meat and fish as well as imported products, at competitive prices even compared to small retailers.
We hope that this time the supermarket will have a long life and be able to adapt to the needs and growth of Malindi, convincing them to have an alternative to the many small stores and convenience stores that already exist.