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- Customers poured into Game at the Mall of Africa for first midnight opening since 2019
- Game is returning to a one-day Black Friday
- Customers say they are still on hunt for big ticket items
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Nearly 300 customers converged on Game’s flagship store in The Mall of Africa for the retailer’s first midnight opening for Black Friday since 2019.
Looking for bargains on big ticket items such as TVs, laptops and fridges, the excitement of the shoppers in the queue that snaked about a quarter of the length of the mall was palpable. Several shoppers told News24 they had been saving for months to take advantage of the sales on offer.
Ntebaleng Moloto and her husband Thabiso said they had come to find appliances and had their eye on items such as TVs and washing machines.
Thabiso told News24 the couple had been saving for three months in anticipation of Black Friday and that he "was very excited because the prices are good".
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Jairus Modisane, who was the first person in the queue, also said he had been saving for a couple of months and that he was "going to buy a lot of things", including a TV and a stove.
Meanwhile further down the queue, avid gamer Lebogang Monareng, who lists car racing game Forza Horizon as his favourite, said he was on the lookout for an Xbox, adding that he had seen a special advertised and decided to "use some of my savings on it".
Shaun and Devashnie van Wyk said they decided on the "spur of the moment" to come and look for a laptop for their 11-year-old daughter.
When the doors finally opened at the stroke of midnight there was no mad rush by shoppers. On the contrary they all filed in patiently but purposefully with most clearly having planned well advance what they wanted to buy.
Big ticket items
In attendance at the store was Andrew Stein, vice president of Game, who said their stores across the country had experienced big turnouts for their midnight openings.
He said there were large queues of shoppers in all the pictures that were sent to him by the various Games.
Last month Game, which forms part of Walmart-owned Massmart, said it had decided after two consecutive years of month-long Black November deals - implemented due to the pandemic - to return to a one-day Black Friday sale this year, and to bring back midnight openings. Game said at the time this was in response to consumer shopping habits continuing to return to normal, and that it would open most of its 108 stores across SA from 12:00 to 20:00 on Friday, 25 November, giving shoppers more time to access once-off deals.
Stein told News24 that Game had been one of the original initiators of midnight openings in the country and South Africans had always "responded very well to it".
"This year was the first year we could open again and it seems like customers have responded positively to it."
What Game was geared up for this Black Friday was strong demand for big ticket items such as fridges and TVs.
"Because consumers are so cash constrained now, they’ve been saving all year for this event. We actually did a piece of research in the last two weeks and 74% of respondents told us they had been saving all year for this event.
"Most of the people I have spoken to in the queue tonight (for instance) are looking for TVs, laptops, microwaves, fridges, washing machines and ovens."
Online offering with bigger range
He said one item that he expected to be a hit with customers was a laptop Game was selling for R1999, which is the "lowest price point ever in South Africa".
"In fact almost everyone I have spoken to in this line have come for one of these. I’ve spoken to about 40 people in the queue".
Stein said the online retail offering for Black Friday this year also had a "much bigger range".
"We are offering free delivery for orders over R450 and then also offering pick-up in stores for orders on line. You order online, pick up in store free of charge. Another big trend this year is around payment options. We have just launched last week 'buy now, pay later' in all stores across the country with zero percent interest."
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Mitchell Slape, who is stepping down as CEO of Massmart at the end of the year, was also in attendance, saying it was his "last Black Friday in South Africa as CEO".
"I may come back in the future (to SA) as a visitor, so you never know. It is bittersweet. I love this company and the country and I love the way that Game has evolved and is what is today."
Slape, who will be handing over the reins to current COO Jonathan Molapo, plans to spend a bit of time travelling around SA before heading back to the US.
"I will wrap up in January with some administrative responsibilities. I want to spend a couple of months just travelling the country and doing some of the things I didn’t get to do because of Covid and then I will head back to the United States."
He said what Game’s Black Friday promotion was "all about is doing everything we can to help the customers save money and live better".
"Black Friday is, not only in SA, a big event in many countries around the world and it is our way of showing appreciation for customers."
This week was also the end of an era for Massmart with the group officially delisting from the JSE on Tuesday after a R6.4 billion takeover by Walmart, bringing an end to more than two decades as a public company.
