Lord Ekong's Local Provision Store 1 — Block 1

This week, I decided to pin business places in a particular street. I once declared my intentions to @pennsif of going deep into rural life, bringing them to the spotlight on Steem-atlas since they have been abandoned for places that have good structures and are seen in the urban areas. I'll see how I can pin local business places in this geographical area I circled to the streets.

We have encountered a series of rejections concerning reviewing people's businesses, as they claim not to know us from Adam and that they don't really know what we want to use the pictures and videos for. In case I don't pin some business establishments in a particular region, just know I wasn't granted the permission to do so. Starting with Lord Ekong Avenue in Ifa Atai, I'll be reviewing business places there. How do I plan on doing this?

My Observations

• Most of these business places don't have business names.

• 90% of these business places don't have facilities. Just an in-and-out shop space.

• Most of them don't have visible landmarks to trace the exact spot they are located.

• They are not visible on Google Maps.

• They are found in the local community and not on express roads where vehicles pass through.

To aid my authenticity in pinning these places, I had to make use of an arrow to show the areas I've covered. For this week, I'll be pinning places in Lord Ekong Avenue, which is a prominent street in my area, gradually developing into an estate. It's sad to say that we have just two different kinds of permanent businesses in this street, which includes;

_{screenshot of the area of the week}

• Provision store and a

• Drinks store

I'll be reviewing the only provision store in the street, which happens to be the store with the best type of garri. No other food or provision store sells this Garri, and it would surprise you to know that she sells her Garri in 2 days if she purchases a half bag. How? I thought this was in a local community? Why do so many sales in 2 days? Let me expatiate.

_{screenshot of OpenStreetMap view on the provision store}

It could be in a local community, but the street is gradually turning into an estate. Being the only successful businesswoman, she has no competitors, and she tries her best to sell things that are appealing, and big men living in that area shop in town. She does so to avoid keeping goods or products for long, as they may not be wanted. Let's look into details. I used the OpenStreetMap to name these streets for easy identification.

Identification

I identify this place in Lord Ekong's Avenue as Store 1-Block A. This is the block I would be focusing on, and it happens to be the first store in this block. It's a provision store that's joined with a house. So it's permanent with no business name for identification. Residents in rural areas give little or no interest to the business name in a local store.

Location

Lord Ekong's PS 1 is located at Ifa Atai Big Junction, Oron Rd, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. You can use Pan African Comprehensive Secondary School Road to enter this street, or you can use the Ifa Atai big junction to access this road. Either way can be used to get to this street.

_{Location of shop and its manager}

This provision store is the only store in this street, and it happens to share boundaries with a local government called Ibesikpo Asutan. The road to get to this store is accessible and direct if you use Pan African Comprehensive Secondary School Road or you're in this local community. Check out these arrows. All roads lead to this provision store without a business name.

Accessible Road or Entrance

The street entrance to this place is tarred to a certain point. A few metres from the shop is untarred. The shop is built at the far end of the first visible house in the street. The store has enough parking space and a stage-like interior entrance that prevents a lot of customers from crowding the shop, as it's too small to contain more than 5 at once.

Exterior

The exterior of this place is quite small except for the expanded land around it. Its walls aren't painted, but the front deck is tiled with pieces of tiles. There's a table in front of the shop which houses grains in plastic containers and soft bread usually consumed by workers and children in that area. It's not an outright store that's built from a foundation. It's a store from the stand of a water tank.

Most Nigerians in Uyo make use of this opportunity to raise a store they won't have to rent. So instead of creating another store from the foundation, they make use of that building to raise their water tank up. That's why the place is small.

_{picture of the exterior and extension space where customers can sit}

The door is made of iron, and it's a dominant type of door used in most shops in Uyo. It is a two-way door you can close and open simultaneously. It has an extension, which most shops do to protect against wild rain that comes with strong breezes. This extension also makes it possible to keep things outside under a shade. The extension is made of roofing zinc and rafters. This helps prevent rain from entering the store.

Interior

The interior is small with three shelves. It also has a small allocated space for the shop owner to sit. The walls of the shop are painted with blue-coloured paint, though algae has made a mess of the walls as it's under an overhead tank.

_{The interior}

The floors of the interior are tiled too, and it's not spacious enough to accommodate three or four persons at once. The interior has 2 shelves, as I rightly said, and a local fridge. Let me share these in pictures.

_{Local fridge}

The first shelf is where writing materials like books, pencils and others are kept. Candles, super glue, cleaning agents, Pampers in small quantities and the like. These are basic necessities that may be needed in a local community. I may not be able to list others, but this shelf contains a lot more.

_{The first shelf by the left}

The second shelf contains soft drinks at the top, like Pepsi, Bigi Lemon and Coke, 7Up and bottled water. Biscuits, Maggi, sugar, macaroni, bread and the like. These are other necessities needed by the local people.

_{The second shelf}

Quality of Service and Products

Products here are of good quality. Let's take a look at their grains. The garri and rice* are assorted because I've not seen them sold anywhere. The problem we have in my locality is where to purchase good Garri, as this is the major food product that's consumed. Just look at the quality of this garri and the bread. It's so demure, and I'll rate it 10/10. Unbeatable.

_{Picture of their grains and Garri}

Let's look at their service. They always attend to customers swiftly no matter the number of customers present to buy products, and they treat all customers right even when they argue prices of some goods that don't favour the seller.

Affordability of goods

Since it's a local community, the prices of goods and services are fair enough for the local community people to afford, as they can't go to town to make their purchases. These are a few goods and their prices.

Macaroni	1000 naira	7 steems
Salt	100 naira	0.7
Biggi coke	300	2
Sachet palm oil	200	1.4
Bread	100 each	0.7

If you check the prices, they are very much affordable, and if you want to check their mode of payment, she accepts STEEM, transfer, cash payment and card payment. She also accepts lending of products to customers on credit as she has a book to keep records. This is a screenshot of the transfer I made today in her shop to purchase Garri for her. This is just a thousand naira, and the steem value is 7 steem in amount. The owner is a woman, and I'll briefly talk about her management.

_{screenshot of her mode of payment and the payment for goods bought by me}

The payment is for Garri of 2000 naira and 100 naira bread that I took the day of reviewing the store.

Management

A mother of two usually runs this store when she comes back from the school she's teaching at, as she's a government worker. While she's away from school, her brother usually manages the store for her till she's back. This is her social media handle, though she doesn't market her things on social media.

Customer Service

Returns are not available in this store as that's the mentality we all have in this local community. They'll feel you must have planned evil. So this mentality spreads to all stores selling perishable foods. If it's a clothing store or something that doesn't enter the mouth, they can retrieve those goods customers want to return. She offers a discount in her Garri business. Instead of 10 cups, she gives 11.

Electricity and Lighting

The cost of running generator to produce light at night is expensive for local stores. While some uses candle at night or an LED lamp. She uses a small rechargeable bulb that comes with a solar recharger. This is what helps her sell at night.

_Led-light

Recommendation

I recommend all looking for a better Garri to purchase for sipping and eating food visit this store for quality and affordability of price. This is a video of my shopping activities in this place.

Type of place	Provision Store
Name of place	Lord Ekong's Provision Store — Block 1
Location	Google Maps
Steem-atlas	[//]:# (!steematlas 4.96370501 lat 7.98640341 long Lord Ekong's PS 1 d3scr)
Address	Lord Ekong Avenue
Opening Hour	8Am
Closing Hour	9pm
Gate fee	Free
Parking lots	Yes
Local Community	Store 1
Website	Not applicable