Business Cannot Predict Future

Men and women who can ‘see’ into the future did not ‘see’ the pandemic coming. We still have remnants of the lockdown, businesses that are still locked.

I didn’t know it was that bad in a certain mall until today. I took some clothes to the dry cleaners only to find it closed. It was not the only one. The tea room next door is gone. It used to do brisk business in the morning because office workers came in for what is known as the full English breakfast, bacon, eggs sausage the whole package.

Starbucks did not re-open after the pandemic, but its neighbour did, a pizza shop. It was house to let today. Before the pandemic, there was a store that sold all kinds of British and French ‘art’ made in China. Gone. Phone company gone.

Apartment Building on Top

When the going was good, somebody came up with the idea of building a state-of-art apartment building. COVID-19 struck, but work continued. They gutted some sections of the mall to build a gym and a restaurant. Banks have always been there. It was going to be a concrete and steel village joined by a myriad of tunnels. The building is done, ready for tenants.

Now, the empty shops in the mall are an eyesore, because it’s not just one or two. Will that discourage people from living there? Maybe not, because they don’t need the phone company since they buy cellphone/internet packages online. They’ll also punch their phones and pizza will be delivered.

Empty shops are never a good sign. They are usually followed by: is the place going down? I’ll find another dry cleaners, but owners of that building don’t have that option. They cannot uproot it, to another location. They need tenants. When they drew the plans a few years ago, nobody knew what the future would hold, and I don’t mean COVID-19. We ‘ live’ online now, not in work/live/shop/play under one roof concrete and glass villages, that are under construction, in most major cities.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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