The Shea Butter Man

I signed up with another agency last Tuesday, on Wednesday they scheduled an appointment with me, and today, I got my skills tested and did the interview. I think it went well.

There's a new store in Old Quebec Street downtown. It's called The Shea Butter Man. If you will recall, shea butter is the pride of Mali, a miracle cream that you can use to make your skin smooth as silk and strong as steel, to flavour your food, waterproof houses, heal injuries and more. It's a product that's been trending, but only for use as a skin cream, and usually only as a watered-down product with a bunch of other ingredients.

The Shea Butter Man emphasizes shea butter, but it is a store full of Sahel region African art that is all for sale. I looked up the store online, and saw that the three nations emphasized were Burkina Faso, Mali, and Ghana.

My understanding was that Mali is the nation most famous for its shea butter, and almost where it is produced exclusively, but it didn't surprise me that there was some spillover into Burkina Faso, which is a neighbouring nation. Ghana's still West Africa, but a little bit further away from Mali than Burkina Faso.

So I went in and it turns out that it's owned by a couple from Ghana. All of the art is from Ghana. The owner says he's been near the border of Mali many times, but he's never crossed it, although he has friends who live there. Whatever. Still cool to have a West African store nearby.

Stuff's expensive, though. For a statue that I bought in Mali for the equivalent of $2.50, here one costs like, $50. Cheapest decorative items were masks. A small mask is $27 and they have elephant masks, but they're medium- and large-size, with the cheaper being over $50.

I was worried that the business would struggle here, since Old Quebec Street has kind of a bad turnover rate for stores, but apparently sales have been good. Maybe it's because it's the only real store of it's kind, and because shea butter is trending.