Chandarana Family

Instead of opening branches everywhere and competing on price like every supermarket, Mr Shantilal Thakkar built around a completely different customer. High income earners, diplomats, expats, families who wanted specialty imports, gourmet products and a shopping experience that did not feel like a crowded matatu stage. They stocked what other supermarkets could not or would not. Imported cheeses, specialty wines, products you could not find anywhere else in Nairobi at the time.

The store count stayed small. The margins did not.

Their customers were not bargain hunters. They were people who had already decided quality mattered more than price and were looking for somewhere that understood that. Chandarana gave them that place and those customers never left.

While the big chains were running promotions and slashing prices to win footfall, Chandarana was quietly becoming the only supermarket Nairobi's wealthiest households trusted for anything that mattered.

You do not have to be the biggest player in the market. You just have to be the only real option for the customers who spend the most.