I caught a glimpse of what Walmarts entry into SA might mean yesterday. On the way to the station, we drove past the Timbercity in Lakeside. Timbercity is a South African hardware chain store. A few years ago a Builders Wharehouse (a Walmart subsidiary) opened up about a kilometre and a half up the road. The writing was on the wall for Timbercity and all the people who worked there. My phone automatically capitalises Walmart, it doesn't recognise Timbercity. Builders Wharehouse has the support of Walmart and all that comes with. They can stay open late and on weekends and not worry about initial loses, they have a much bigger range than Timbercity and they will soon be a monopoly. Already my friends in Joburg talk about going to Builders and not the hardware store. I don't think this consolidation of the market place is good for society. The invisible hand of the market will ensure there are less jobs and the jobs there are are McJobs (compare the concept of a job to a livelihood).
To put a human face on all this. I was walking my dog on Zandvlei, near where I lived at the time. The dog ran into the vlei near the bridge and went after a duckling. A man saw it happen, and didn't see the duckling reappear. He told me that he thought my dog had killed it. Not in an angry way, more just sad. I saw he had a Timbercity shirt on, and recognised him from there.
He walked off, I scolded my dog and stood looking out over the vlei in the direction of the beach and water slides where the duckling had been. Pretty soon I saw the duckling bob back to the surface and join its (my long range duckling sexing skills aren't what they used to be) parents. I was happy.
I had to go into Timbercity later that day and saw the same guy. I told him the duckling had survived - he was really happy. I hope he has managed to find a job somewhere else now.
1 comment:
The reality is, I think, that the old economic arguments just aren't true when it comes to these corporates. For example, the argument that a big company provides savings to the consumer. I mostly avoid Builders Warehouse these days, after the latest (of about four) occasion that I bought something there and found it elsewhere for less than half the price. I mean, if you paid R500 something from me and later discovered that it wasn't worth more than R200, wouldn't you feel ripped off? To me, that's just unethical trading, which floats on a massive bubble of marketing, not on any meaningful service or price differential. These days I go to a small local hardware store which, as it turns out, actually has a range that easily challenges BW, and better in quality and price.
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