5 The choice for a focus on the Barika shop (a choice on macro level) seems to be partly driven by issues in the salesforce (micro level). Do you agree that micro-level issues should drive macro-level choices? Why (not)? Sub-Saharan Africa is often heralded as an important future growth area. With the rise of an African middle class, spending power also increases, creating growth opportunities that are increasingly difficult to reach in the saturated European or American markets. But, in order to be successful, knowledge of distribution structure is of the highest importance: in order to sell, it is essential to reach the consumer!The Western shopper is used to buying food in supermarkets, operating under familiar names like Wal-Mart, Carrefour, or Tesco. This is where we spent the bulk of our money. But we easily forget that this pattern isn’t the same everywhere. In sub-Saharan countries in Africa, big chains have a substantial lower relevance, often being virtually non-existent.Nielsen retail sales data show that some 40% of African consumers shop in small, local grocery stores, or ‘dukas’. These dukas account for nearly 50% of consumer goods spend. The average duka, often only a few square meters, is loaded with a wide variety of goods and often forms the center of a community. But this is not even the most relevant channel. The most common African shopping channel is the table top: a stall set up at the side of the road or in the local market to capture local and passing trade. In a recent Nielsen study of sub-Saharan countries, it was found that 80% of consumers shopped from table tops. For instance, in a country such as Nigeria, there are no less than 200,000 table tops. At the duka, Africans tend to spend a lot more than during each visit than at the table-top. But this doesn’t make the duka more relevant.