Cost of load shedding will just be transferred to the consumer

We all know how devastating and disruptive load shedding has been to businesses over the last few years.

The Food Lover’s Group has put a figure to it.

They estimate they will pay R200 million alone on diesel for the franchises and themselves this year. Eina!

Theirs is not an isolated case – Shoprite are staring at a R1 billion-plus bill for diesel each year, while Pick n Pay revealed they spent nearly R350 million in 10 months.

CEO and cofounder of the group Brian Coppin told Moneyweb: “We will probably spend between R40 million and R50 million buying new generators and adding capacity to the stores.” That’s diesel costs alone.

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Coppin reveals load shedding has also had a huge impact on people’s needs for food as often families can’t cook between 4pm and 8pm because of load shedding, often not buying food to cook and instead turning to fast-food or eating out.

People also don’t stock up as they did for fear of the food spoiling.

Many of their supermarkets are on main roads and with traffic lights consistently off due to inconsistent power supply, people avoid those roads.

Even with the supermarkets’ best intentions to keep costs down, we all know the cost of load shedding will just be transferred to us, the consumer.