Cost and Returns on Chewing Stick Retail Marketing In Southwest Nigeria

Purposive sampling technique was employed for the selection of four LGAs in Ogun State and six LGAs in Oyo State where 40 chewing stick retailers were randomly selected equally in both rural and urban settings to give a total of 400 respondents i.e. 160 and 240 respondents in Ogun and Oyo state respectively. Responses from one hundred and seventy eight (178) retailers were used in the final analyses due to different degrees of non-completion. Data collected include demographic characteristics, year of experience in the business, frequency of trade, unit of purchase, form in which product is sold, awareness on cultivation of species marketed and cost associated with the trade, etc. Data generated were analyzed using descriptive statistics (such as frequency distribution and computation of percentages), Gross Margin (GM), Net Income and Rate of Return (ROR). Forty percent (40.4%) of the retailers fall within 16 to 30years of age. Each of these bundles was retailed at an average total cost of N900 to earn an average revenue of N1,440 and an average net income of N540. The study concludes that chewing stick retail trade is a lucrative business in the study area. The following recommendations are made: education of the respondents on the need to form themselves into social groups like cooperative societies so as to enhance their scale of operation through adequate funding and value-addition (such as better packaging) to their products so as to enhance their profit margin from the business.   Keywords: Retailers, Rate of return, Environmental degradation, Household, Livelihoo