For this Friday business news wrap, we look at a few items that crossed our path this week.
The first was my reading of King Rat by James Clavell. At the end of the book, and I don’t want to give away any spoilers, the whole system collapses and people who once had power no longer have it. The ideas that supported the system, although wrong and sometimes barbaric, collapse with it. Their usefulness has come to an end.
It’s strange, but this got me thinking about the demise of CNA, the stationer and newsagent. I’m still thinking about it a lot. The need for stationery and similar items hasn’t disappeared, as PNA has demonstrated by picking up some of the market CNA left behind. I’d love to know what happened within CNA. It seems to me that the world changed around the company, while those in power continued operating within the old system. They no longer had the fresh ideas needed to save it.
Some retailers, meanwhile, have been capturing their markets for decades. Clicks released sound results this week, while Boxer, the wholesale and discount retailer, also performed well. These are companies that understand their customers and cater to their needs. They aren’t trying to reinvent demand; they’re meeting it. And they’re proving that the formula works.
Afrimat, the construction group, released satisfactory results this week, as did Famous Brands, the food franchise operation.
Speaking of Famous Brands, I sometimes crave a good old-fashioned Wimpy burger. But the classic burger now costs R100. It’s interesting to compare prices. When I was at Cape Town International Airport about three weeks ago, I had that same burger at Wimpy. Afterwards, I leafed through the menu and discovered that a mixed grill was approaching R300. The steak on the menu was also expensive — more than I would pay for a meal at a fine restaurant. In fact, I recently enjoyed a pepper fillet at a restaurant in Glencairn for less.
An interesting issue raised its head this week in Kalk Bay, where residents are furious with the owner of a restaurant operating on railway-leased land. New construction has effectively obliterated the children’s pool that was there.
But what really caught my eye was the residents’ call for musicians to boycott the restaurant by refusing to perform there. This seems unfair to the musicians.
I don’t know exactly who these residents are, but Kalk Bay is now one of the pricier places to live along the False Bay coastline, and many of its residents are presumably well-heeled. I found myself wondering how much skin they would put in the game themselves.
It just doesn’t seem right to ask struggling musicians to sacrifice paid performances. As we know, live music has battled in the aftermath of COVID, and musicians have always had a tough time making a living. To ask them to forgo a paying gig without offering an alternative seems unfair. It really doesn’t add up.
On the national mid-term budget, all I can say is that the levy relief, albeit small, is welcome. The finance minister is also focusing on providing capital injections and supporting capital formation so that the economy can become more productive.
As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. This is particularly true in a downbeat economy where everyone is striving to make a buck. Some have got it right and are living well. Others, and there are many, are struggling.
The more we understand where the opportunities lie, the better positioned we are to take advantage of them.
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