Shops ready for festive shopping

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Friday November 19, 2010 00:00

 

Characterised by a lot of celebrations and the giving of gifts, the festive season is time for increased shopping activities. Some of the problems associated with large scale shopping sprees peculiar to this time of the year are stubborn queues, pick pocketing and shoplifting.

The increasingly erratic electricity supply in the country has become a concern to the business community as the festive season approaches.

Indeed long queues are a major nightmare to shoppers during the festive season, especially that the concept of online shopping is rather new in Botswana.

As the pavements bustle with shoppers and the clothing shops and supermarkets are thronged with mainly impulsive customers, petty thieves are on the rampage seeking to prey on customers who have lost their guard especially after a long wait in the queue.

The victims may also be distracted by the festive excitement and the amount of luggage they are minding or the pestering children in tow.

Pauline Caiphus says that to avoid long queues, she does her shopping in advance in order to also take advantage of discounts. Although she is aware that low prices attract more customers resulting in lengthy queues, she always takes time to compare prices so that she gets the best bargain. She prefers to buy from a shop whose security is adequate.

Kefilwe Jemesol, who says that her biggest shopping nightmare is long queues, buys well before Christmas day.

She is also aware that thieves become busier closer to the Christmas and new-year holidays. In her view, buying in a hurry can be a problem as the customer, due to pressure might fail to check the expiry dates of consumables which failure may be costly. Jemesol says that shops should reserve certain tills for those using cheques or those swiping to avoid holding up the rest of the customers.

Josephine Katlholo says that she is a stickler for quality. As a businesswoman, she has got little patience for long queues because time is money. The transport operator says that although she has never been a victim of festive shopping theft, some of her customers have fallen prey to the crime losing cash or goods.

Katlholo is disappointed by the quality of service in the majority of shops in Francistown and feels that some of the workers could do with more training to rid them from apathy, impatience and arrogance.

The market Director of Spar supermarkets, Bobby Rushforth, says his shop aims to satisfy the market by providing quality service this festive season.

He says that this would be achieved by shortening the waiting time in the queue to the minimum possible.

According to Rushforth, Spar will employ extra cashiers, packers, managers and cleaners. He adds that good customer service will be achieved by making sure that there is adequate stock as well as enough trolleys.

The Resource Director of Choppies, Ben Stegling says that in order to promote good service delivery during the festive season, all those in the Choppies payroll will be put on duty adding that at Choppies, they are always expecting long queues because of the promotions they make where people have a chance of winning something.

Stegling says that his shop will employ a professional merchandising system to aid the customer in finding the items easily. Casual staff will also be available to replenish stock on the shelves.