The time is 00:38 AM. I am sitting at my desk, sleepy and frustrated. Frustrated because I stayed up (Ok that is a lie, I always go to be super late) to get some “deals” online. Why am I frustrated? All the popular websites such as Takealot, Superbalist and Dionwired have crashed. This means those that stayed up to get some deals online cannot do so.
I know that some sites, such as Takealot, beefed up their servers to ensure that they would be able to handle the load but just like everything else in South Africa, it didn’t go as planned. As I write this piece in utter frustration, every so often, I am able to get on Takealot but when I attempt to go to a new page, it loads and loads and loads.
My second frustration with Black Friday in South Africa is that these deals are not the same kind of deals that shoppers see in America. In America, you get massive savings on items that you can give as gifts such as TVs, gaming consoles and laptops for example. When I looked at the Tech section on Takealot, I saw a bunch of items that were everyday items that Takealot usually sells as part of their daily deals. They were not cool gifts. They were powerbanks, cables and ink cartridges . Now how is that Black Friday?
So for 2018, I’d like to see websites that are able to handle the traffic and I’d like to see actual deals on items that people want to buy. Good night Black Friday.
