Little Debbie Snack Cakes(?) in Ghana

I had written before about how one of the most difficult adjustments to living in Ghana has been in terms of dietary changes.  More specifically, the foods I grew up enjoying in the United States tend to be either difficult to find, uncomfortably expensive or outright unavailable in this part of the world.

And I know, from chatting with a couple of friends, that Ghanaians face similar challenges stateside.  For instance, one homey from Ghana told me how when he's in the States, he makes groundnut soup from peanut butter.

Normally, groundnut soup is made from groundnut (aka peanut) paste, which itself is produced naturally.  Meanwhile, peanut butter is a processed supermarket food, besides being sweetened, thus meaning it's not an ideal alternative for groundnut paste when it comes to making soup.  But you do what you have to do when you're living in a part of the globe you're not accustomed to.

PROLIERATION OF WESTERN-LIKE SNACKS IN GHANA

When I first came to Ghana, it was extremely difficult to get your hands on Western-like snacks.  They were by and large not in circulation; I would presume in part due to the fact that Ghanaians aren't really into junk food like that.

In more recent times, the availability of such treats has increased significantly.  Readily available artificial snacks, including soft drinks, have also become a lot more diversified.

The problem though is that the types/brands you find at any given location (outside of major supermarket chains) tends to be random.  In other words, what it boils down to is the owner of an individual shop going to the market, seeing a snack s/he prefers and deciding to purchase it to sell.

When it comes to going to the market and buying snacks wholesale, the selection is virtually limitless (depending on which market you go to), so no single retail shop can stock them all.  Shopkeepers also tend to buy particular snacks arbitrarily, i.e. not during every visit to the market.  Or sometimes, a certain brand may be unavailable altogether due to a shortage.  It's not like the US, where most products are delivered to grocery stores by respective companies.  At the 'bodegas' in Ghana, if the merchant doesn't go out and buy a product him or herself, then in most cases their store won't have it.

So the reason I'm writing this post is because, I just happened to stop by a store in a 'hood I was staying in (Opoku Nsiah, Koftown) and found this gem:

Selling cakes that aren't pre-ordered or made fresh by a bakery is sort of a new phenomenon in Ghana and still somewhat of a rarity.  So whenever I'm at a shop that I see has a variety of snacks, I'll press my luck to ask if there's cake available.  That's how I found that bad boy, "LayerZ", which tastes even better after refrigeration.

This is the closest I've ever come to enjoying a Little Debbie snack cake in Ghana.  In fact, LayerZ is sorta like a poor man's version of Swiss Rolls.  And it's the first type of cake I've ever come across in GH that's actually coated in (artificial) chocolate.  They even added a little swirl on top for decoration:

You may be saying to yourself, 'this is a stupid thing to write an expatriation post about'.  But as the old saying goes, don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.  And coming across that cake brightened what was otherwise another uneventful day in the 'hood.

DEALING WITH GHANAIAN MERCHANTS AS A FOREIGNER

But I want to use also use this opportunity to speak on a couple of more serious matters.  The first day I bought LayerZ, from a shop circa Lane 10 in Opoku Nsiah, the lady charged me GH₵2.00 a piece.  When I went back, just a couple of days later, she hiked it up to GH₵2.50, saying something like she accidentally undercharged the first time around.

I was suspicious but initially gave her the benefit of the doubt.  That quickly eroded when afterwards, homegirl then tried to charge me GH₵10.00 for a loaf of butter bread.  Meanwhile, it currently costs GH₵8.00, but I proceeded to buy some LayerZ and half a loaf anyway.

The reason I'm pointing this out is because if you're in Ghana and noticeably a foreigner, especially one from outside of Africa, merchants hiking prices specifically in your case is something you'll have to regularly contend with.  At most shops, prices are set but not marked for customers to see.  So if a seller believes that you're not aware of the going price for a product or service, he or she may overcharge you for it.  Or they may operate under the stereotypical belief that all foreigners are rich and therefore don't particularly care whether you already know the price or not.

Sometimes when people behave like this, I get angry and decide to boycott the store, even if only temporarily.  Doing so can be a major inconvenience when the person is selling something that's not readily available anywhere else in the vicinity.  And a merchant overcharging you can be particularly painful when it's someone you're friendly with.

Living in Opoku Nsiah was a bit challenging, though not overly so, in that regard.  It's not a bad place, but let's just say that sellers in some parts of Ghana may be more inclined towards taking advantage of outsiders.  And ultimately, the only way you'd be able to identify such a location is by spending time there.

$4 for two Little Debbies, @ $2.19 each?  Damn!
That Honey Bun lookin' proper tho...

Overcharging may be considered a form of stealing or in the very least an unscrupulous activity, sorta like usury.  That's especially true if the seller hikes the price significantly, like say, by 25% percent.  And of course, this isn't solely an African practice.  For instance, I recently came across this article which highlighted how large American businesses are increasingly relying on the internet of things to individually beat customers in the head.  And let's not even get into the unethical yet proliferating business practice of shrinkflation.

It's also possible that it may be all in my head, as in the lady probably did undercharge me the first time I made the purchase.  All things considered, I doubt if that's the case.  But I do know that inflation is real.  And I should also perhaps be thankful that I found that a worthy snack cake at that price in circulation at all.

SNACK INFLATION

For instance, my homey Seriez, who lives in Atlanta, recently enlightened me to the fact that now, in the United States, an individual Little Debbie snack cake costs $1.00 going.  To my recollection, around the time I left the States a couple of decades ago, they used to only cost $0.25 or maybe a little bit more, depending on the type.  Common snacks have become so expensive stateside that now Americans are being forced to cut back on their consumption. 

We face similar issues in Ghana, as in neverending inflation.  But from a certain perspective, things aren't as bad here as they are stateside.  For instance, that GH₵2.50 I paid for the LayerZ currently comes up to (according to Google) 16 cents, in dollars.  By the looks of things, you probably couldn't even get a piece of candy in the US for that price anymore.  So it's also possible that the LayerZ really did cost that amount, and I was being paranoid about homegirl cheating me.

That said, a real Little Debbie is a lot richer than a LayerZ and other such cakes you find in Ghana.  If they were to start selling actual Little Debbie out here, chances are it'd only be available in major supermarkets and would cost the equivalent of what it does in the States.  Due to the economic and dietary realities of Ghana, a genuine Little Debbie would be more akin to a delicacy than a snack, kinda like how the consumption of candy bars is rare out this piece.

O' how I miss thee Debbie, my "fudge round"

So for the record, I would pay a whopping GH₵15.00 (i.e. $1) for a Fudge Round if I came across one in Ghana.  The last time I bought a Snickers bar, about a year ago, it costs GH₵25.00, fair and square.  That amount of money can get you a decent plate of food out this piece.

And that's the curse of living in Ghana with Western tastes, i.e. your everyday appetites being pricier than the next man.  Yet slowly but surely, the situation is being mitigated via initiatives such as LayerZ.

CONCLUSION

If you're a foreigner in Ghana, you have to be prepared to deal with people who'll overcharge you, even sometimes for little things.  Sometimes, you may refuse or demand a fair price.  Other times, you may just decide to take it like that.  And in any event, the more you remain dependent on outside tastes, the higher your overall cost of living is going to be.

Last revised on 12 July 2024