Before the Nigerian economy began to take a consistent and dramatic tumble, shopping in superstores became a lifestyle Nigerians savoured lavishly.
Apart from goodies available for purchase, many look forward to taking photographs to either let friends know their activity for the day or just have fun.
The queues in these malls and stores would make your heart skip with the queue at the cash registers, making you wonder when it would get your turn.
But Economy&Lifestyle's visit to some of the supermarkets and shopping malls showed that such an era, where customers troop into big shopping malls and supermarkets to get their basic needs, is no more.
Many now prefer to patronise local wholesale shops, where they can get such goods at cheaper prices and with fewer queues.
Mrs Akinade Temitope, a banker, said she buys her goods from local shops, noting that they are cheaper there.
"Everybody knows the prices of goods in the market are high.
"But when you go to some supermarkets, it is ridiculous.
"Up to the price of bread which is sold for N1,200.
"In bakeries outside supermarkets, the size of bread goes for N800.
"Who would know such and still decide to patronize the former?
"Ordinary Maggi small sachet is N380 in supermarkets and a roll of 10 is N3,800 when I can get such at N3,000.
"With the way businesses are crawling, salaries not increasing and expenses piling up every day one will need to change lifestyle.
"So I decided to stop visiting the shopping malls and instead get my groceries at cheap prices in wholesale stores.
"This simple change in lifestyle has helped me cut costs a lot."
Mrs. Monica Adams, a teacher who usually shops every weekend for groceries said she now visits local stores to buy her groceries at a cheaper price and small quantity.
"Before, I shopped in malls and supermarkets. But now, I don't because of the rise in prices I just decided to patronize local stores.
"I can't even buy the large quantity of food items I usually buy in these malls anymore.
"Now I just patronize local stores to purchase what my money can afford.
"Those queues in the shopping malls and supermarkets especially on the weekends have reduced.
"Try to visit one and you will see for yourself."
However, a few people said they patronize shopping malls for things that are difficult to get in local stores such as ice cream and ice.
Mr. Victor Oshinaike said: "I only visit the supermarket whenever there is an item I can't find in the local market.
"I am a top fan of supermarkets because I don't like moving about the local markets to get different items.
"But I don't mind moving now to cut costs.
"To make it fun and easy to bargain prices with sellers, I go with my younger sister.
"It is before people say men don't price. Now men are very conscious of the prices of goods and also look for where to get these goods at a very cheap price.
"There is no rich man in Nigeria, the rich also cry."
Miss. Kenny Boma, a pharmacist said: "My family and I have shopped for groceries every month in shopping malls for years now but for two months now, we have not been able to do so anymore.
"We now go to local markets to get things needed and manage.
"Apart from the cost, nobody has spare cash to do lots of shopping these days. Everyone is managing. They only go for basic things now."
Apart from Supermarkets, even the queues in bakeries have reduced too", Shalewa Ogunsanya, a hair vendor, said.
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"The queue in shopping malls used to give me trauma. For so many reasons I hated it there but they are the only stores where you can find all your groceries at once.
"I went to a particular one last week and was worried about the queue. To my surprise, there was no one in the queue when I got to the cashier's counter."
"I asked the cashier why there was no crowd on a weekend and she replied, "things are so expensive and not everyone can afford them in this economy.
"We are also being affected by poor sales too.
"I visited a popular bakery to buy bread the same day. This bakery was also filled with customers who were always in queue.
"But that day, there was nothing as such. The attendant told me that they have even reduced their production size to avoid losses."
