A Woolworths store in one of Johannesburg's most upmarket malls shut its doors for four days this week after its generator broke down.
The store in Rosebank Mall was closed between Monday and Thursday afternoon amid Eskom’s rolling blackouts.
With load-shedding ranging between stages 4 and 6 this week, which meant up to three two-hour outages a day, the store was in the dark.
A Woolworths spokesperson told the Sunday Times on Friday that the store was “unable to trade due to a mechanical breakdown in the generator which subsequently resulted in us waiting for parts to enable repairs”.
The spokesperson declined to comment on losses incurred or the amount of food that had to be thrown away but said the impact on consumer and business confidence was “significant”.
The spokesperson said most of their stores had generators which enabled them to continue to trade despite Eskom’s capacity and maintenance issues.
“Our store emergency backup generator keeps equipment like refrigeration units and tills up and running, and provides ambient lighting,” the spokesperson said. Woolworths said they have been focused on energy efficiency initiatives at their stores which have resulted in a 40% reduction in electricity consumption in the past decade.
Economist Dawie Roodt said wherever trading is affected, a company loses revenue. “When it happens in an affluent area like Rosebank or Sandton, that’s more in your face as it’s unfortunately an advertisement that says South Africa is not open for business,” Roodt said.
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