Makro will be testing small-format stores in malls

bwana said:
Did they actually convert some of the Dion stores to Game? In PE they just closed it down due to the proximity of it to an existing Game.

I would just take the Games and the Makros and rebrand them all to Walmart.
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Am I remembering wrong, wasn't the Dion at the Bridge at the western escalators changed to a Game? It has been decades, but I do recollect buying floppy disks and blank CDs at Dion in that spot there last century.
 
bruce_the_loon said:
Am I remembering wrong, wasn't the Dion at the Bridge at the western escalators changed to a Game? It has been decades, but I do recollect buying floppy disks and blank CDs at Dion in that spot there last century.
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It's possible, I try to avoid Greenacres and The Bridge as much as possible. I'll ask the missus though, she'll probably remember.

At BW they were less than a quarter turn away from each other.
 
Some of you okes are confusing Dion and Dion wired. Probably owned by same mothership but 20 years ago or so Dions was basically the same thing as Game used to be (before grocery).

Dion wired was an appliance store. TV's and stuff.
 
saor said:
Do you still need a Makro card to shop there? Could never understand the point of the stupid thing.
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I stand to be corrected, but I imagine that Makro was originally a B2B wholesaler. The card helped track invoices for VAT etc.

Now as a bulk retailer I still believe it has its place, bearing in mind you don't need to physically carry it. For years I just kept a photo of it on my phone, and now you don't even need that, just give them your cellphone number.

The beauty of it for me is that more than once I've had to claim warranty repair or simply return/exchange an item and just producing the card was good enough. You don't need the printed slip as they keep records via the card.

I've lost slips from other stores, and on some big ticket items those silly heat printed slips were too faded with time and I've lost out.
 
Brawler said:
Some of you okes are confusing Dion and Dion wired. Probably owned by same mothership but 20 years ago or so Dions was basically the same thing as Game used to be (before grocery).

Dion wired was an appliance store. TV's and stuff.
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All the Dion stores were either closed or rebranded as Game back in 2008 by Massmart who had also launched DionWired a year earlier.

www.news24.com

50 years later, Dion stores could be disappearing from SA – this time for good | News24

Dion stores supposedly inspired Sam Walton in the 1980s. Now his company is on the verge of shutting down the brand for good.
www.news24.com www.news24.com
 
The BIGGEST blunder Massmart made, was changing the game format stores to substitute food lines to the detriment of items that the South African consumer went to Game for and ended buying lots of other items of course. This was to try and emulate the format of the USA stores. In my mind, considering trading density of perishables vs hard goods plus entering a market that is basically cornered, it didn't make strategic sense and I was intrigued to see and learn how such a transition would work. It has been a disaster since. Being directors and CEOs doesn't mean they know better, it just means they have deep pockets of public funds with which they can play with and provide formal sophisticated sounding excuses for failure. They need to dump the food lines at Game, and restrategize towards their core business. I'm sure the pareto principle will tell them what's making money and what isn't. I wonder how the Makro stores in the malls will do. Their prices are nowhere as competitive as they used to be, and the shopping experience in a mall is a very stark experience from a warehouse superstore.
 
Qsilver said:
The BIGGEST blunder Massmart made, was changing the game format stores to substitute food lines to the detriment of items that the South African consumer went to Game for and ended buying lots of other items of course. This was to try and emulate the format of the USA stores. In my mind, considering trading density of perishables vs hard goods plus entering a market that is basically cornered, it didn't make strategic sense and I was intrigued to see and learn how such a transition would work. It has been a disaster since. Being directors and CEOs doesn't mean they know better, it just means they have deep pockets of public funds with which they can play with and provide formal sophisticated sounding excuses for failure. They need to dump the food lines at Game, and restrategize towards their core business. I'm sure the pareto principle will tell them what's making money and what isn't. I wonder how the Makro stores in the malls will do. Their prices are nowhere as competitive as they used to be, and the shopping experience in a mall is a very stark experience from a warehouse superstore.
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So while I fundamentally agree that the move to include perishable goods into the Game format was a failure, I'm intrigued by this Directors and CEOs have deep pockets of public funds statement because that doesn't ring true. Depending on the size of the company they may have deep pockets of private capital to try new things and some of those things will be a failure, its still not public funds.

Game as a brand has become largely synonymous with cheap crap though, which wasn't always the case but I doubt that they can rescue the reputation of the brand. In my opinion it would make more sense to kill the brand entirely and replace the bigger Game stores with Makro branded entities that offer a smaller curated selection of the stock that Makro currently offers.
 
Nobody Important said:
I stand to be corrected, but I imagine that Makro was originally a B2B wholesaler. The card helped track invoices for VAT etc.

Now as a bulk retailer I still believe it has its place, bearing in mind you don't need to physically carry it. For years I just kept a photo of it on my phone, and now you don't even need that, just give them your cellphone number.

The beauty of it for me is that more than once I've had to claim warranty repair or simply return/exchange an item and just producing the card was good enough. You don't need the printed slip as they keep records via the card.

I've lost slips from other stores, and on some big ticket items those silly heat printed slips were too faded with time and I've lost out.
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+1, and the fact that they can theoretically contact you when there is a product recall. I can't remember which store it was that contacted me when there was a recall on a trolley jack I bought. I'm not sure if Makro or Builders will do the same, but these are the main two reasons I bother taking out my Builders card vs. getting the hell out of there as soon as possible.
 
saor said:
Do you still need a Makro card to shop there? Could never understand the point of the stupid thing.
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Yes, but the virtual card works just as well.

It's a requirement at several large wholesale stores across the globe, like CostCo for example.

Just be happy Makro don't charge for membership at this stage.
 
saor said:
Do you still need a Makro card to shop there? Could never understand the point of the stupid thing.
Click to expand...

Back in the day you needed to be a legitimate bulk buyer and buy certain volumes to qualify.

This obviously went away but they had built all their billing and processing systems around these cards (or rather the account numbers) and therefore the need for them.

Now it’s a glorified rewards program, but as someone else said it’s great for invoices and the like which are all linked to it.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Back in the day you needed to be a legitimate bulk buyer and buy certain volumes to qualify.

This obviously went away but they had built all their billing and processing systems around these cards (or rather the account numbers) and therefore the need for them.

Now it’s a glorified rewards program, but as someone else said it’s great for invoices and the like which are all linked to it.
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Ja I just remember driving past there a few years ago and needing to buy something. Remembered I didn't have a card and cba to get one and went somewhere else. Felt like a deterrent more than anything at the time.
 
bruce_the_loon said:
Am I remembering wrong, wasn't the Dion at the Bridge at the western escalators changed to a Game? It has been decades, but I do recollect buying floppy disks and blank CDs at Dion in that spot there last century.
Click to expand...

That's what I remember too. Dion in The Bridge was converted into Game. Dion back in the day was very similar to Game, the Dio Wired stores came later.
 
Apogee said:
Yes, but the virtual card works just as well.

It's a requirement at several large wholesale stores across the globe, like CostCo for example.

Just be happy Makro don't charge for membership at this stage.
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Costco has a completely different model. You pay a membership fee.

Makro is just annoying. The card serves no purpose.

Even their mRewards is confusing.
 
Yeah no don't see this gaining too much traction. Keep the bulk stores but improve on the online shopping experience IMHO. I would definitely buy via Makro, rather than Takealot/Amazon etc (for UCount and other discounts), if they fix their shoddy online and delivery services!
 
Our local Game in the Brooklynn mall has closed down (Thankfully)

Was always a crappy store, with the closing sale, the staff only labeled 10% of the stock for clearance. If you wanted to buy anything you first have to take it to a till so you can get the price

I loose no sleep over those useless staff not having a job anymore.

Most of these stores closing is directly related to shitty staff
 
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