Cape Town - Long, snaking queues, a frenzied rush for bargains, overflowing trolleys and super-stressed cashiers marked Black Friday madness in the Mother City.
Bargain hunters gathered in malls and outside shops shortly after dawn, as some supermarket chains opened as early as 6am. Clutching baskets and with trolleys at the ready, they were raring to go on a shopping binge.
Other consumers opted to shop online, but even big online retailers like Takealot.com were overwhelmed with surges in traffic and sites temporarily crashed. The moment the doors opened at Checkers in Sea Point, customers barrelled in, charging toward discounted items like toilet paper and soft drinks.
“I’m here for the bargains and for the savings,” said Anita Ely, who arrived at the supermarket before it opened at 6am. Carmenita Cookson said. Black Friday sale items were “cheap, cheap, cheap”.
By 10am the Checkers Hyper at N1 City was jam-packed, with queues snaking into the aisles.
Meanwhile, shoppers at Game headed straight to the electronic sections.
Ridha Jones went to Game in the CBD shortly after 7am to buy a Samsung TV, listed at half-price. “I just moved into my place about two months ago and I couldn’t afford a TV. So I thought I would just use the opportunity now to get it.”
But not everyone was as lucky.
“You are too late. The rush is over. You should have been here at 7am,” a shop assistant consoled a latecomer.
At the V&A Waterfront, luxury fashion retailer Lacoste was letting in just one customer for each one who exited. A video of a woman injured in a stampede in Durban’s Pavilion Shopping Mall went viral.
ER24 spokesperson Russell Meiring said the woman had been treated by paramedics after injuring her shoulder while shopping.
At the Emmerentia branch in Johannesburg, staff of Checkers were calling out discount prices and putting items in shoppers’ trolleys unsolicited. The items Checkers ran out of first? Alcohol and Doom insecticide.
Black Friday, the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, is a recent addition to the SA retail calendar. “We see a massive adoption of North American retail trends in South Africa - it is tested, it works and is already embedded in the minds of South Africans,” said Dion Chang, founder of Flux Trends, a company which identifies business and consumer trends.
Weekend Argus