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Shop And Ship
Things have changed considerably in Zambia over the last
few years. Gone are the days when the basic necessities of life, let
alone the luxuries were just not available; when if you had children
at school outside of the country, a few weeks before their holidays,
you sent the list of what you needed urgently, from soap to shock
absorbers (yes, I brought shock absorbers once; and only remember
the look of complete confusion on the face of the South African
airport security person ‘Wot is this, hey?’. ‘Ag Okay’)
These days, we have not only the necessities, but also many
of the luxuries which hitherto were unknown to the vast majority of
the people, including those who could afford them. How we longed for
that little nibble of chocolate; apple pie with real apples rather
than with green pawpaw cooked with lemon juice and cloves; wouldn’t
it be nice to be able to have Quality Street at Christmas again? But
today, for those who can afford them, these are not luxuries. They
are easily available whenever we want them. But still, there are
many gaps in the variety of retail goods we can buy here. And there
is always the question of price and quality. And that is why I
believe that Mercury’s new Shop & Ship service is going to be a
winner.
The Shop & Ship service combines the benefits of
their mailbox service and their new Catalogue shopping facility.
This service offers a personal mailing address (without actually
living there) in the UK and South Africa Internet orders can be
received. Mercury then forwards the contents of your mailbox to you
daily at very competitive rates, saving you time, effort and
money. And for those who would like to do a bit of Internet shopping
but who either refuse or have not yet bothered to arrange some
plastic money, in the form of a credit or debit card, Mercury will
make payment on your behalf.
They have tried
to offer a variety of options both in terms of different catalogues
and payment options.
Next
They
have an account with Next which allows people the opportunity of
buying from this popular site without the hassles associated with
opening an account (which we might add is extremely difficult to do)
Argos
They have an exclusive agreement with Argos/High Str Connect whereby
clients can access the High Str address web site and make the
necessary purchases.
www.highstreetconnect.com This is an all inclusive service with
freight and duties included in the price.The benefit of this service
is that the client pays the catalogue price.
Jojo Maman
Bebe
This is a baby and maternity wear catalogue, so caters only to a
small section of the population.
Alternatively
clients can make use of their computers to browse through any
catalogues of their choice.
As regards payment,
one can order using ones own credit card or Mercury can order on
your behalf, There will be a form to be completed with catalogue
numbers and Mercury will do the rest. And the charge for this is a
5% service charge with a minimum of K 100 000. If you use your own
credit card then you just use the Mercury address as the ship
address. Shipments leave the UK daily.
For shopping
from ‘down south’, they do not have any catalogues but one can make
use of the Mercury address as a ship address. They can also
recommend useful web sites
Clients are
welcome to drop in at their offices in Dunduza Chisidza Crescent and
browse at any time between 7.45 and 17.15, when after doing their
shopping, they can pay in any of the recognised currencies at the
bank rate applicable for that day. And a few days later, they can go
back and collect the pieces they ordered.
So if you have
not yet done anything about that latest CD you promised your
daughter for Christmas or the fishing rods you were thinking of
getting for boys, there is still time to get it organised, paid for,
shipped and hidden away before Christmas. |
December
2006