Spare a thought for Edgars this Christmas season

Like many South Africans who were young during Edgars’ heyday in the 1990s, I have fond memories of the chain. My high school best friend and I went to Edgars for our first high-end lipsticks and jeans. My first boyfriend started his career with Edgars. And Edgars was one of the first retailers to offer me a small credit line, back when my dreams were bigger than my wallet.

It’s sad, therefore, to see a once-great chain (and its sister chain, Jet) teetering on the brink of collapse. Sad, but not surprising.

Edgars is a department store. It includes a range of different, mid-priced brands and a mix of clothes, accessories, and homewares. Such stores peaked in the 1990s, not just in South Africa but around the world. In the US, department stores like Sears (a kind of Edgars on steroids that sold appliances and tools as well as clothing, shoes, and accessories), Kmart, J. C. Penney’s, and Macy’s have closed hundreds of shops as customers moved on. Today, shoppers prefer to go low or high, choosing cheap retailers like Mr Price in SA or H&M in the US and Europe, or high-end, expensive, or luxury brands. The middle has vanished in clothing retail.

Edgars leadership made mistakes – plenty of them – but they were fighting a global tide as consumers appetites and tastes changed. For Edcon’s 20,000 workers, however, this will be cold comfort.

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