Kadogo Economy ~ CNN & NTV on Small Goods

Small is beautiful: Slum traders spark big business trend reports CNN's Lillian Leposo, on the retail goods transformation in Kenya, the rest of Africa, and emerging economies generally...

"A common factor in these goods is that they are sold in small packages, weighing from 45 grams to just four grams, and costing from as little as half a cent. Though now all her goods are sold in branded packaging, [shopkeeper Anna] Wanjiru has been selling the same items in similar small portions for decades to the low-income market. "My customers are poor and were locked out of the supermarkets where everyday things were packaged in large quantities, making them unaffordable," said Wanjiru. "So I decided to buy the big packs and then resell in small portions to my customers." The ingenuity of Wanjiru and other shopkeepers who serve people in low-income areas gave rise to Kenya's "Kadogo economy," which loosely means low-unit economy. Progressively, big consumer goods companies noticed the profits and decided to cash in as well by repackaging their products."

And here's a Kenyan NTV report on the Kadogo economy...