No blackout blues for these retailers

Eskom’s continuous load-shedding is a daily dose of despair for many but being left in the dark and unable to cook has translated into manna from heaven for Zaahir Dollie.

The liquefied petroleum gas supplier says his client base has grown 30% since September last year when the embattled power utility began regular stage 5 and 6 load-shedding due to plant breakdowns, maintenance interruptions, theft, sabotage and other reasons.

“The demand [for LPG] has been good and bad as there’s been a shortage of gas bottles,” said Dollie, owner of Premier Gas in Cape Town.

“Many new clients are ordering new bottles and we are struggling to keep up ... The situation really requires one to be resourceful to keep all clients happy, yet keep your pricing competitive,” said the owner of Premier Gas in Cape Town.

“Our technical division has also seen a huge increase in gas appliance installations. Clients that had electric stoves and geysers are now switching to gas. We are constantly striving to fulfil all demands within a satisfactory time period.”

January is traditionally a quieter month after the holiday festivities and spending, but that’s not the case this year for businesses offering ways to mitigate the misery of load-shedding.

Garfield King, manager of an Ellies outlet in Cape Town, said this January was like no other, with sales having gone up 80%.

“Solar panels and surge plugs are selling like hot cakes. We thought since it is January things would slow down, but it’s been the complete opposite. Most of the time we sit without stock as people grab products within the first two days. As we unpack stock, people buy the items. We’ve put a lot of customers on the waiting list as we can’t keep up with demand.”

Not only are fed-up South Africans flocking to buy inverters, rechargeable lights, surge protection plugs and gas stoves but demand has soared for repair services to fix everything from electric gates to computers and appliances that have been knocked out by power surges.

Matt Vos from IT-support company Voxcomm IT said staff had been “very busy”.

“We’ve been getting a lot of business from insurance companies, and we do a lot of repairs on laptops, desktops and gaming devices that have been damaged by power surges. In the past few months we’ve also been doing a lot of battery replacements, especially on inverters that are damaged as a result of load-shedding.”

Vos said due to longer bouts of loadshedding, backup batteries were not charging fully. “People tend to run their batteries flat … until there is no power left and that is problematic as it wears out the battery faster than normal.”

Massmart spokesperson David Mogotlane said the company, which owns Makro, Game and Builders Warehouse, has seen strong demand for products such as inverters, headlamps and rechargeable lamps and light bulbs. Gas stoves and generators are also popular.

“We have noted a shift towards inverter-generators, a more suitable option for noise-sensitive areas such as apartment complexes. Demand has been high and we remain in constant contact with suppliers to secure the stock our customers need,” he said.

The company said rechargeable LED lanterns, which can switch on automatically when the power cuts off, were top sellers at Makro. Another load-shedding product in the top 10 was a 7.5kVA generator.

Andre Steyn, vice-president at Game, said: “There has been a definite increase in demand for affordable solutions for load-shedding. In November, December and January to date we have seen a 101% increase in the number of generators sold, and a 311% increase in the number of inverters sold.”

He said inverters and power cubes, which the store started selling last year in June, were popular among customers living in flats and townhouses.

“Our top-selling items helping South Africans through load-shedding are rechargeable lanterns and 2.7kW and 5.5kW generators as well as surge [protection] adapters.”

Cape Union Mart technical product specialist Pierre Pienaar said demand had risen for power banks, portable power stations, lighting and camping stoves.

He said the company had “invested heavily” in load-shedding solutions for the coming year. “We have also invested in alternative brands, styles and suppliers in cases where our existing suppliers are unable to meet demand.”

Most of the time we sit without stock as people grab products within the first two days Garfield King

Ellies store manager