Deep Dive Data — Independent data journalism, Harare
Financial Infrastructure · Hiding in plain sightEvery morning, before the banks open, hundreds of trucks leave Zimbabwe's bakeries carrying two things: bread, and a cash-collection network that reaches more retailers than any bank in the country. One reported operation alone runs 91 trucks to 5,500 retailers. By a conservative model, one distributor moves US$225M+ in cash a year — with no banking licence anywhere in the chain.
Set the trucks, the retailers per truck, the average order and the trading days. The model shows the cash one distributor moves a year — and how its fleet of mobile cash points stacks up against the entire commercial bank branch network.
What this is: cash, visits and the truck count scale with your inputs; the bank branch bar is fixed at an estimated ~350 for comparison. Full methodology and sources in the article.
One is built for a 30–45 minute browse with a prepared-food strip down the right wall. The other is a grid of seven dry-goods aisles built for a 10–15 minute basket. Switch between them and read the business model off the architecture.
Store A. Separate entry and exit force a one-way route. Produce takes the centre. A strip of prepared-food counters runs down the right wall. Dry goods are squeezed into five aisles in the middle. Tills sit small, near the exit.
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Every morning bread trucks visit more retailers than any bank — stock on credit, cash collected, moved to depot in sealed safes the driver can't open. By a conservative model, one distributor moves US$225M+ in cash a year, with no banking licence. Includes a bread-route cash estimator.
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