Megabytes' New Unruly Rule

The Megabytes cafe, situated behind Hostel H poses a new rule to curb competition, a rule that seems far away from being comrade-friendly.

It has always been my thinking that all the shops, chips cafes and other food stuff selling points around main campus exist strategically to benefit the student population, by means of availing goods and services as conveniently close to the students as possible. This assumption remained true until yesterday, Sunday morning.

Saturday's inter-university sport event was a major one. Although I missed out on direct participation, I was engaged in related activities, tiresome enough to cause a difficulty in early waking up the following morning.

However much I tried, I only managed to get up at a time when you do not expect to find breakfast from either the SOWETO MESS or the one inside the Students Centre. A quick resolution therefore struck my mind, a decision to visit the Megabytes Cafe that I suspected would not let me down. There, you find a variety of food stuffs including different types of fruits, but I was only going for one thing - tea.

Adjacent to Megabytes is another cafe that specializes in chips, smokies, maandazi and chapatis. So I passed by and collected around four maandazi that would serve as a light escort to the Megabytes' tea.  I never knew that was the first mistake I was doing on a day of worship. I then proceeded to my destination and asked for tea that costs nothing more than ten shillings, at least twice its price at the MESS. I almost went through. The man in a black jumper kindly received my coin, dropped it into a drawer and instructed me to get a mug from the other side because the thermos flask was right with him. Unfortunately, he was only doing that because he had not realized what I was holding on my left hand.

It was until I was going for the mug when he got a clear chance to spot the four pieces of brown snacks, hiding inside a small transparent polythene bag. His mood suddenly changed and as if only half-serious, he quickly asked, "Hiyo ni maandazi ama chapoo?"

As soon as he confirmed that I was carrying items which he also sells, and worst enough, bought from his nearest competitor, the man reacted with both words and actions. He recollected my coin from the drawer and gave it back to me while furiously clarifying one of the cafe's rules, "Hata sisi tunauza maandazi hapa..."

In other words, Megabytes Cafe does not operate that way. If you want to buy tea, do not walk in there with your own snacks; you must purchase what is available on their counter, whether it suits your taste or not. After all, they are after one thing - to increase sales and maximize profits.