South African consumers are cautiously optimistic about the heavily marketed Black Friday deals that are sold as the best time to score a great bargain. Most retail outlets extend the one day event to between three to five days sales to avoid overcrowding at its stores.
When Newsnote visited Makro Centurion on Friday, there were no long queues, shoppers said they were comparing prices and looking for best deals. A shopper, Lebo Madau said she did her homework to ensure that she gets great deals.
“The Black Friday deals are good. But you need to know the price before you come here because sometimes they tend to say it is a Black Friday deal only to find that the price is higher than the normal price.
“So I came here specifically looking for a laptop. I am also looking for toilet paper which is part of my groceries .The baby soft toilet paper normally goes for R160-something today it is R115 so for me that is a great deal. There is other stuff like TV.
“I do my homework first before I do my shopping. I know the normal price throughout the year so when it’s Black Friday I know it’s not a ripoff,” said Madau. Another consumer, Eva Tloubatla said her stokvel saved the whole year and they want to get more for their money on festive season grocery shopping.
“I just came from the night shift. I am here at Makro Centurion and I got here at 7:00 in the morning because I was expecting long queues. But there is no queue or anything. “They asked us to send them our list so that they can pack for us. We were supposed to come on the 7th of December. We decided to come today because it is Black Friday.
“There are 10 people in our stokvel and we have been saving the whole year for festive season groceries,” said Tloubatla. Many working South Africans have had to tighten their belts to cope with the rising cost of living that’s worsened by electricity cuts that have forced many to find costly alternatives.
Alfred Maurhudzi said he was hoping to score big on equipment for a new business. “I am looking for deals on equipment I will need to start a business. I want to open a fish and chips business so I am looking for equipment and to take advantage of the Black Friday deals,” said Maurhudzi.
