Despite the recent bombshell news of SA retail giant Edcon, owner of Edgars, being on the brink of collapse, a quick visit to East London stores by the Daily Dispatch revealed a positive and worry-free atmosphere.
Edcon is the largest non-food retailer in SA and has been around for almost 90 years, opening its first store in 1929 in Johannesburg.
The Edcon website states that over the years the company has expanded its footprint to include 1,100 stores across SA. Edcon are also the owners of Jet and CNA stores.
The Sunday Times reported that the retail company was facing liquidation and had requested a 41% rental reduction from shopping mall landlords in an effort to avoid bankruptcy. Edcon gave the landlords a deadline of Friday.
The paper said an Edcon collapse would see 40,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs being lost, the single biggest job loss in South African history.
However, two Edgars stores visited in East London were filled with Christmas shoppers, and employees worked seamlessly.
A shop assistant who wished to remain anonymous said the store was not closing down because they were making money and sales had gone up.
She said she had been working at the store for many years and was not worried about losing her job.
“There were rumours a while ago that Edgars is closing down and we were worried then, but we’re not closing down. The store is doing well and managers update us on what’s going on, on a daily basis,” she said.
While two Edgars store managers were reluctant to speak, they did say there was nothing to worry about and shoppers could “keep on shopping and will still be able to keep shopping next year”.
“We are a retail giant. We’ve been in the papers before and we’re doing fine,” said one...