The supermarket is a few kilometers away, it’s afternoon and the Marche Central has closed, so what do you do?  Go to the hanout!  I have a hanout (a convenience store) downstairs from me.  We go five to seven times a day - I need a 7Up!  Get me some laundry detergent!  The cat needs dinner!  We’re out of toilet paper! - and this past spring when our hanout expanded to double the size, cheered the owner on and started going to the supermarket less often.  Our hanout now has everything from gum, batteries, bread, toothbrushes, whitening face cream, and shampoo to chocolates, Cornflakes, nail polish, hard-boiled eggs, headphones and hair dye.  The hanout is a glorious place!

A funny thing about hanouts is that they’re nearly always (at least around here) owned by Soussis - that’s people from the Souss Valley, in the south of Morocco proper.  Soussis are often the butt of jokes relating to money (Example: a Soussi accidentally dropped 2 dirhams into the toilet.  He was pondering whether or not to reach in, when he had a great idea - he dropped 20 dirhams more into the toilet, then reached in for the whole lot).  Anyhow, I have nothing bad to say about Soussis or hanouts - in fact, you could say I’m a big fan of both.

Anyhow, this evening while browsing Google News, I came across this gem:

ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Moroccan food and daily goods convenience store retailer, Hanouty Shop, has successfully gone into live production in just four months. The Aldata G.O.L.D. software is now in operation in 100 Hanouty-owned stores and Hanouty’s objective is to have 500 stores - both Hanouty-owned and franchises – operational by the end of 2007.

Hanouty Shop?  Why have I not encountered one of these yet?  What a genius way to market - everyone loves the hanout, everyone relies upon the hanout, you can’t live without the hanout!

Thank God someone posted a picture of a Hanouty:

Thanks EspaceMaroc

Here’s what I wish to happen - Hanouty becomes big, opening hundreds of shops across the Maghreb and Middle East (that’s their plan), takes over 7/11 and OWNS America.

I’m just kidding of course, but with a name like Hanouty, who knows what can happen?