Dark outlook for businesses in the South
Most shops had put their shutters down and staff could be seen hanging around bored.
SHOPPERS were left in the dark in more ways than one at The Glen Shopping Centre on Monday, March 18, due to a power failure.
As some stuck it out and wandered around aimlessly, they were left wondering when the power would be back on again.
Power had gone out at 12pm and will presumably be back on around 4pm, if the power outage schedule is correct.
What would normally be a relatively busy Monday in the centre, especially with the school’s being on holiday, was left looking like a ghost town, with hardly anyone there. The aisles were mainly empty with just a few shoppers walking around, wondering about waiting it out or rather giving it up as a bad job and going home again.
The CHRONICLE spoke to one shopper as she was leaving the centre. “This is really frustrating. I’ve had to use petrol to get here, pay for my parking ticket and have left with no shopping. I guess I should have phoned centre management offices first to see if they had power but I never thought about it,” she said. “I’m not going to wait though for it to come back on, it’s a waste of time.”
Most shops had put their shutters down and staff could be seen hanging around bored. “This isn’t the only day it’s been like this,” said a staff member. “Nearly every day for a week we’ve had power outages for four hours at a time.”
One irritated gentleman who’d come for a specific reason and found the shop closed, said, “The economy is already shaky and now with all this I believe many smaller businesses will close down. It’s impossible to run a business with power outages every day. I do believe if this is a sign of the future, many businesses won’t have one.”
“The power interruptions affects our tenants negatively with huge financial implications / losses. These losses are seen through loss of turnover, staff costs through unproductive staff at work and mitigating situations, increasing costs such as power inverters, generators and fuel costs.
“Most effected are the independents as they may not have a secondary store to assist them in making up lost turnover,” said Dean Myburgh, Marketing Manager.
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