Life in a Small Market, Tickling the Global Market

February 22, 2010 by Taran Rampersad

I sat across from an attractive female academic not too long ago as she asked me about helping her find a USB mass storage device for her Apple laptop. Trinidad and Tobago, of course, is a small market - and the people who bring down hardware bring what is most likely to sell. And Apple compatibility is really not as big of a draw as the typical Apple user may think. The majority of the market in Trinidad and Tobago uses the PC platform - so when people bring in computing paraphernalia, it's basically for the PC platform.

It wasn't too long ago that a Bajan friend had problems with Apple- you can read about it here and here - but to save you the trouble of clicking the links, I can simply tell you that reading it will make you think different of Apple. But really, it is just life in a small market.

It doesn't just mean Apples and oranges. Automotive parts for vehicles pre-abused foreign ('foreign used', aka 'foreign abused') vehicles are known for unavailability of parts, black licorice is an oddity instead of a commodity and the author has pondered selling his soul for a pack of Nutter Butter cookies at some times. It isn't to say that there isn't some demand for these items - it's that, relatively speaking - there isn't enough demand for such items. One day they will be on a shelf somewhere, and when they are found they aren't reordered because the businesspeople involved don't necessarily want their money tied up on dusty shelves.

Magazines arrive 2 weeks late. Bookstores and music stores are subject to the ordering taste and whims of the owners of the stores.

There are ways to find things, of course. I recall in the 1980s driving all over Trinidad to try to get parts for cars, computers and what have you. This is still a time-honoured way of getting things in Trinidad and Tobago - calling and driving around, looking for specific items. If you're fortunate, people will know what you're asking for - and seemingly, if you're one of the majority, you have to go see if what they have is what you need. The amount of time spent looking for things should be a tax writeoff - and in a way, it is for businesses. But not so for individuals.

Then the Internet came. Or, more appropriately, it 'sort of' came. People use SkyBoxes and other manner of ordering things from the United States - if they have a way of paying that is accepted by the larger markets, something that is rare and a point of contention for myself and others. Money still escapes the small market to access the larger markets where things are much more available - but, for reasons that defy common sense - the banks haven't figured out a cost-effective way for micropayments into Trinidad and Tobago that would benefit small and medium sized enterprises. Again, people find ways to bypass that problem, but they are a minority.

It is, after all, a small market - and the banks do not thing micropayments are worthy of an investment of their time and energy. They make interest on their inefficiencies and the customer base simply isn't that large. This is life in a small market.

Hi-Lo groceries don't even sell Pillsbury Cookie dough - they make the cookies and sell them in their bakeries. Go look.

There has been a lot of talk and writing about globalization - about the benefits around the world - but the small market remains the small market.

One has to wonder when Trinidad and Tobago businesses and even government will openly embrace the global market. With importers of trinkets of all sizes and shapes being the traditional business model for many, the concept of exporting things to subsidize the importation shouldn't be as foreign as it seems to be.

After all, oil leaves the country. So do people. Employment in a small market has limited options as well.

Permalink