By Business Reporter-N Richards, once one of Zimbabwe’s leading wholesalers and retailers, has shut down its Mutare branch, located opposite Sakubva Stadium near the old Mabhëro Market, marking another blow to the country’s formal retail sector.
The closure follows similar shutdowns of its Hatcliffe and Tynwald outlets in Harare earlier this year, as operational challenges escalate amid deepening economic instability.
This trend is symptomatic of broader turmoil in Zimbabwe’s formal retail sector, where even major players like OK Zimbabwe and Spar are scaling back operations.
Spar recently closed its Queensdale store, while Food Lover’s Market announced the impending closure of its Avondale and Borrowdale branches in June 2025.
Botswana-owned Choppies exited the Zimbabwean market entirely in 2023, and Mahommed Mussa has reduced its shop space by 60%.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) has sounded alarm bells, attributing the crisis to policy inconsistencies, particularly the government’s handling of the dual currency system.
Though Zimbabwe officially operates a multi-currency regime, authorities require businesses to accept the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency alongside the US dollar at a fixed exchange rate.
The artificial rate, however, often diverges sharply from the black market, forcing formal businesses into heavy losses.
Retailers face the added burden of sourcing supplies predominantly in US dollars while selling in the weaker ZiG.
Compounded by high operating costs, power shortages, shrinking consumer spending, and harsh regulatory obligations, formal businesses are fast becoming unsustainable.
Zimbabwe’s economic woes are rooted in years of monetary mismanagement. After the 2008 hyperinflation crisis wiped out the Zimbabwean dollar, the country dollarized in 2009.
However, policy flip-flops returned in 2016 with the introduction of bond notes, which eventually morphed into the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar.
In 2023, the government introduced the ZiG in another attempt to stabilize the currency, but confidence remains low.
Exchange rate distortions, lack of foreign currency reserves, and erratic fiscal policies continue to undermine recovery efforts.
As formal retail collapses, informal traders—who operate outside tax and regulatory frameworks—have taken over.
Selling mostly in US dollars, these street vendors and tuckshops have lower overheads and more flexible sourcing channels, allowing them to undercut formal supermarkets.
Their dominance is visible across towns and cities, including high-density suburbs and rural growth points.
The CZR has urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to enact urgent reforms. “The fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and statutory frameworks have created an uneven playing field,” said CZR in a recent statement. “While formal businesses crumble, the informal sector thrives unchecked, eroding market share and economic confidence.”
The closure of N Richards outlets and other big brands evokes memories of the 2008 meltdown when hyperinflation led to the collapse of nearly all formal business operations.
Without swift and meaningful policy reform—particularly in stabilizing the currency and curbing inflation—the country risks repeating that tragic history.
Zimbabwe’s formal retail sector is now at a tipping point, with N Richards’ exit from Mutare adding to a growing list of casualties and casting a dark shadow over the future of structured commerce in the country.