I frequently receives promotional from a local supermarket. Every weekend, they let me know what products they have that is on offer. One of the funniest is that they let me know what alcohol has reduced prices that weekend. I would have been thrilled but I am a total teetotaler. With this information, I can be more informed around my drinking friends. Or judge their expenditure. Or both. Either way, information is only useless once you determine it is.

Wonder Bread!

Like every other Kenyan, I used to find these promotional SMS very annoying. Until one Friday evening I was asked to make some sandwiches for a hangout of about 40 people for the next day, Saturday. We were going on a hike to Ngong’ Hills but the organizers were unsure the hikers were well prepared for the hunger that strikes right from Hill 1.

800 grams of bread is now 100sh but if you buy from a supermarket’s bakery, 85sh is the average. Now, I live 2 km away from 2 supermarkets, each on either side. From one, I receive messages on offers and then from the other, I don’t. Not to say that they don’t have good offers. They do. However, I may never know until I walk in 🙁

I, then quickly remembered that that local supermarket (the one that decided I also drink) had sent me a text stating that they had reduced their bread prices from 85sh to 69sh. This was their weekend offer starting on said Friday. I quickly took up the offer and went to the ‘notifying’ supermarket. When I got there, I was just in time for the third batch. I wasn’t the only one who had come for the bread, said the baker. Kumbe people read texts!

Don’t be fooled that your customers despise message notifications, the lines at the payment till that day said something else 😀