The City is Wholesaling: Implications of N Richards Group and Metro Peech Locations to Greening Endeavours in the Harare Urban Space

Abstract

The article seeks to explore and discuss the possible effects associated
with a city is wholesaling, that is currently on a drive in Zimbabwe‟s
capital city of Harare as seen by the emergence of new vibrant and
giant wholesalers in some high- to medium-density residential areas,
including Hatcliffe, Msasa, Sunningdale and Tynwald. City
wholesaling in Harare has emerged and is on the rise at a time that is
deemed to be perfect, considering the advantages that wholesaling in
nearby suburbs is offering to the city centre. The study is based on
the notion that wholesaling of large quantities of goods requires
extensive space that is unavailable within the city centre, hence some
of the wholesale shops end up locating in or close to industrial areas
and others in commercial areas within local suburbs and
neighbourhoods. It becomes important for these industries to go
green for less negative implications posed on the environment and
the local people‟s livelihoods. The study made use of geographical
information systems (GIS) technology to map the location and
distribution of N Richards (NR) and Metro Peech (MP) Wholesalers
in Harare. From the mapping exercise, the study found out that the
location of these giant wholesalers has been highly due to the need
for much space, and nearness to high populations as in the case ofMP along Seke Road, in close proximity to Sunningdale and Hatfield suburbs which are highly populated.