The US retail giant, Walmart will be opening stores in South Africa for the first time. Walmart operates in 19 countries countries currently and they have been operating in South Africa through their shareholding in Game, Makro, Jumbo Cash and Carry. In recent years, Game has been battling with low revenue in a tough competitive environment, which necessitated the closure of many stores and subsequently retrenchments.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Competitors like Shoprite which has dominated the SA market for the longest has been opening new stores throughout the country, so Walmart must expert strong competition from the SA giant. Online retailers like Amazon, Takealot and others have not made life easier for brick and mortar retailers either as online transactions are projected to grow by 10% year on year in the next decade.
The arrival of Walmart should be seen as good news for local manufacturers and SMMEs as it promises to source locally, which will boost the economy and create much needed jobs. This should surely augur well for Black Economic Empowerment(BEE) which encourages multinationals to have Enterprise and Supplier Development(ESD) programs that assist local SMMEs to gain market access.
The location of the first store is yet to be announced but one of the big property players is planning to make more space available for Walmart in the coming months, resulting in smooth landing for the retail giant. It is encouraging to see multinationals coming into South Africa as the country continues to bleed jobs, with some multinationals shutting down operations in the country permanently. This is a vote of confidence for South Africa and we hope the economic conditions will improve so that more multinationals see South Africa as the preferred and safe destination for the investments.