If like me you have ever wondered whether "low margin, high volume" business models will ever thrive in Ghana, we have another strong reason to think they can't: Melcom.

Melcom belonged to that class of businesses that for a while seemed to prove that the "low margin, high volume" path in business is viable in Ghana. 

The company seemed to be designing a modern retail experience for the mass market instead of targeting the same sliver of the upper middle class customer base that every modern service business in Ghana's big cities seems to be aiming for. Relatively lower prices, massive floor spaces, no frills service, something for every pocket. Europe and America have Tesco, Walmart, Carrefour, Melcom seemed destined to figure out a slick mass-market play for Ghana.

Some argued that the third-generation Indian-Ghanaian origin of Melcom had something to do with it. If any business folks are going to crack low-margin-high-volume in West Africa, some Chinese, Indian, or Lebanese links must be in the mix somewhere, or so the theory said.

Then as competition heated up in Ghana's modern retail segment, especially with the entry of multinational players like South Africa's Game and Shoprite, and as the cost of capital went through the roof, Melcom turned to the World Bank's private sector arm for large dollar infusions and updated its business strategy. 

It concluded that it needed to expand its footprint dramatically. It needed to take the multinational entrants head-on. 

Unlike the Koalas and Maxmarts of yesteryear, the likes of Shoprite seemed on the cusp of building real Tesco-Walmart style nets to drag the middle classes away from Makola-style "provision shops". Melcom felt it couldn't, in Ghana's context, ignore these new entrants like it did the likes of Koala. Palace, another new entrant, for instance, seemed to combine scale with a certain panache that could draw in the more aspirational cohorts of the lower middle-class.

Melcom's response has been like a blitzkrieg. With Game running away from Ghana with its tail between its legs, Melcom has had the occasion to demonstrate the triumph of its rise by taking over Game's old space at the iconic Accra Mall. Melcom is spreading branches so fast, patrons can't even keep up.

But here is where it gets interesting: the retail chain also seems to be ditching low-margin-high-volume. 

Its new flagship branches are now situated in posh places like the Accra Mall and many of the items and their prices seem clearly targeted at high-end customers. Gone are the long-winding queues at checkouts. Melcom shops now spot freshly made beetroot and pear juice at nearly two dollars for half-a-can potions. Gone are the bland shelving. Twenty-dollar chocolate pouches now sprout teasingly from high shelves. Gone are the cheap plastic wares. Instead, expensive natural-oil cosmetics going for ten dollars casually make a showing among the familiar dove and nivea fare.

It is a real sight to behold. Growth for the likes of Melcom appears only viable if they trade up into the high-end shopping circles, not downwards towards the masses. 

The question here is painfully stark: if even Melcom couldn't find a low-margin-high-volume pathway to expansion and growth in Ghana, can anyone?