Township Economy
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Working paper 2019

What price cheap goods? Survivalists, informalists and competition in the township retail grocery trade

Leif Petersen, Camilla Thorogood, Andrew Charman and Andries du Toit, PLAAS Working Paper 59

A national study of more than 1,100 spaza shops introduces the ‘informalist’: larger networked businesses that use informality as a strategy, including contraband and exploitative labour.

Petersen, L., Thorogood, C., Charman, A., & du Toit, A. (2019). What price cheap goods? Survivalists, informalists and competition in the township retail grocery trade. Working Paper 59. Bellville: PLAAS, University of the Western Cape.