South African grocery giant Pick n Pay has confirmed a decision to do away with more than 1 000 junior managers across their stores. Image via: @PicknPay / Twitter
Slow start to Black Friday: How different is it from previous years?
According to reports, Black Friday 2020 has been something of a phenomenon this year. Here’s how things are looking so far.
South African grocery giant Pick n Pay has confirmed a decision to do away with more than 1 000 junior managers across their stores. Image via: @PicknPay / Twitter
While there has been some major hype leading up to this year’s Black Friday, it wasn’t quite what some expected once the day arrived. According to early reports on Friday morning, the Mall of Africa in Johannesburg, Canal Walk in Cape Town and others looked significantly different this time around.
We’re used to seeing large groups of customers, snaking queues and utter chaos but this year, no doubt due to an unprecedented and ongoing pandemic, things have slowed down quite a bit. Although the number of customers increased as the morning progressed, it is still a different picture from what we have seen previously with sanitizing stations and limits to how many customers may enter at any given time.
BLACK FRIDAY 2020: ARE THERE SNAKING QUEUES?
Well, according to reports, there were just a few customers wandering around some of the malls early on Friday morning. Thereafter, things seemed to pick up, however, nothing close to what was seen in previous years.
EWN reporter Refilwe Pitjeng said Shoprite in Diepsloot was relatively empty. She also said customers appear to be buying the essentials and the necessities rather than any other unnecessary items.
She said items such as coffee creamer, lotion, maize meal and washing powder were being added to carts, which shows the after-effects of the pandemic and lockdown.
The broadcaster also noted the difference in traffic. Last year, it took roughly an hour to get into Makro in Woodmead, whereas this year, it took about two minutes to gain entry early in the morning. This could no doubt change as the day progresses.
While some stores were still closed at 8:00 on Friday morning, Sportscene SA said all its stores would open from 6:00 on Friday. Totalsports, on the other hand, sent out SMS’s saying that there would be up to a 75% discount off Adidas, Nike and Puma products.
Clicks said customers would be able to save 30% on luxury fragrances. In the meantime, the Body Shop is offering 40% of all 200ml body butters and Foschini is having a three for two sale on top beauty brands.
WHAT DOES MZANSI HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS YEAR’S SALE?
Quite a few people on Twitter appear to be less than enthused regarding the big Black Friday sale, some saying that the discounts are not significant enough.
Award-winning chef Lesego Semenya said:
“If it wasn’t for lockdown and the insane import fees now added to international shipping I’d do what I’ve always done and wait for Cyber Monday and skip SA’s nonsense “black Friday” and order from overseas where they do proper sales and discounts. COVID has spoiled that this year.”
Supersport TV host Mpho Letsholonyane said: “R500 off a R10K item and you call that a Black Friday sale…We do this thing wrong. We should just call it off until we are ready to do it right… If you aren’t giving at least 50% off, TLOGELA!!”
Another Twitter user said “South African stores need to understand that Black Friday sales are supposed to involve HUGE discounts. They give us 20% off and think it’s something”.
“Black Friday but on petrol, car instalments, bonds and rent, loans. Real things!” said another.
