The town is quiet!

[Michael Alexander]

Michele just drove me to the hospital to get my dressing changed, wow! The sun is shining ever so bright out there, and the streets are quiet, very quiet...... guess people have decided to leave town for XMAS!

[SandyB]

Strangely enough .. a similar  kind of  feeling  here  unless of course everyone getting into doing the last minute  " oh to heck  with it rush " I went to woolies  early this morning . to ensure i got certain  goods for  26th  and to stock up on  other necsessary plus surprise guest  bits and pieces ..  well canal walk was initially  quiet ...  woollies shelves had me worried ..  lots of stuff close to its sell by date not moved yet ..  either people waiting to see if  it drops in last day or two  or ???  there are certain fresh ingredients that I had to choose carefully  for date so  yes was very observant .. Idont want last minute rush ...  but yes shelves looking alarmingly full of   close to  write off  .. Ouch !!  I know from inside info that  woolies  trying best to  not  do the panic and  retrench  but yes they feeling the pinch ...  their  philosophy being to  try ride the storm and retain happy staff ...
We as a company have done it before  and got through  although they dont  remember and cannot equate  job  security with  that  all important  in their minds  Xmas  bonus  that sometimes does not appear  due to financial pressures ...  I have told staff they have  choices ... sure we can  declare  bonus on  wrecked margins  .. and  retrench  like all our   low  price  gnaw at ur  heels  " competitors"  do ...   Oh its all so complicated ... and yes  this  is  the time of  year my soul  feels raw for those  less  fortunate  than us ... I have  just done a bit of  stocking up on some  tinned  basics as well .. for  the odd one  I feel deserves . its just  there  if the moment is  right ... and  yes  I'm still getting my junk mail from  the  good old  U S of A   filtering through  ...  apart from the ususal  ..  " why not own a new  sony  yada yada  flat screen  etc  and be the  envy of your neighbours ?? "  Huh !!  ??  no  wonder  people  are in trouble ..  I  wait till my  not so used  TV  blows up  or  yes the  technology forces me to change ...  Aagh !! mind  be  quiet ...

[SandyB]

A  footnote   to  the   year  end bonus  thing ...   we   at the end of this  year  declared  3 weeks  plus  another   in  january  once the  Nov   figures and   we had  a good feel for December  figure came through ..  so staff got  4 weeks .. not bad under  difficult trading  conditions  hey ?  ..   we  just stuck to  our   business  ethic of  pay for quality and service ...  we   lost  some  customers but gained others through innovation   and consistency ...  Our one  major  client  amounting to  35 %  of our  turnover ..  went on tender basis  ... we lost the  tender .. but yes still getting business from them ???  strange hey ..  hear via the grapevine that the  people on the shop floor not happy with having to struggle with inferior  quality ...  so we await the new year , and see  if their  "  tender "  philosophy  collapses ??
Strange one  on this  .. I heard of another  company  that  has  its  packaging  suppliers  submit  tenders  on the internet ... a kind of  anonomous  bidding  system  kind of  like an auction .. and  everyone  can see  what the  other is  bidding   ..  story is  there only   3  manufactureres of a certain  type of  hi tech  packaging material  and yet  there  were   6 bidders ???  and some of the  prices  per unit  would not even cover the cost of  raw materials ???  thats called  f**king up a market ??? everybody is  entitiled to their  slice of the cake .. and all could do well  on the cake if  they did  not get greedy ... we not  talking about  price  fixing here but just being  realistic ... 

[pam spackman]

Well after 99 years in buisness here

all our Woolies will be no more by January 9th


Very Sad..... but thats how bad it's getting here

[SandyB]

Pam .. me under correction but  the woolies in UK  similar to  ours here .. I  understand   our woolies here pegged  more to  Marks and Spencer  end of market .. anyhow its sad to see  a favourite store our chain of them close ..  I miss the old  departmental stores  like Stuttafords and Garlicks ... had a total blast from the  past on Thailand holiday .. they still  have stores like that ...  center well  with the  escalators going  up .. and  departments with  people   serving you ... one such one in phuket town  is  Robinsons ..   

[Michael Alexander]

It amazes me how the Woolworths in Omund keeps chugging along, it was brought into Oranjemund by the company during a time when there were a lot more upmarket (expats and higher income) people were woking for the company..... it was outsourced 13 years ago, their customer base has changed in Oranjemund, they stopped all their fresh lines and when Spar has a q of 100 people, there is just 2 people in that store..... I have for years reckoned that they do not pay the same rental per sq m as Spar does............ there is no way that they turn a profit........   

[Cherry (Alcock)]

The UK Woolworths are/were very different to ours; Sandy is correct, ours are more like M&S.  The UK ones not easy to define ito merchandise - kinda mish-mash of stuff.

[Barbara Eia (Brownless)]

S A woolworths is englands marks and spences (M&S)
Englands woolthorths is very much the same as ackermanns ( they sell the ladybird stuff)

[pam spackman]

Yes you're right,uk woollies is not the same as

s.a. but it was still  well known.Are you saying theres no more

Stuttafords/Garlicks???

[SandyB]

Garlicks   absolutely not any more ..  Stuttafords exist  solely as an upmarket clothing outlet and upmarket appliances ,, a mere  fraction of  what it  used to be in  its   heydays ..

[Cherry (Alcock)]

Remember when Garlicks & Stuttafords were the show piece shops in Adderley Street?  Used to be able to go to the self-service restauant at Stuttafords for the best pie, chips and tons of gravy when we arrived back on the school flights ie if we weren't sneaking into that pub in Strand Street - remember that one Sandyb?   

[SandyB]

The  Coral  lounge  in the  Grand  Hotel ,  Cherry ... how the hell did we  use  to  get it  right to  sneak in there  we  were  and  yes   looked  too young .  ???  but we did ....

[Michael Alexander]

School Flights, we would always sneak into that Pub in the Railway Station, opposite the green Train Display..

There is still one of those Old style Stores in the Strand , called Friedmann&Cohen!

[SandyB]

A P Jones in  Fishoek   is  also a bit  of a blast from the past as well ..

[Michael Alexander]

Sigh! FIshoek... the town of my birth!