While many retailers and online stores have started to adopt Black Friday as a huge annual cut-throat sales bonanza, South Africa does not have an official day for this – not in line with the US tradition, which marks the beginning of festive shopping on the last day of November.
In what is a market first, Esquire Technologies, one of South Africa’s leading distributors of IT and digital lifestyle products, put its own spin on this by launching its own Rainbow Weekend – which is now three years old.
Initially starting of as Rainbow Friday, Esquire decided to extend this to Saturday, renaming it Rainbow Weekend, as many of its clients did not want to stand in queues or rush to purchase products – especially IT products.
Says Asgar Mahomed, MD of Esquire Technologies: “Every year since our launch it has grown bigger. This year will be no exception as many of our vendors are eager to participate and already have some deals lined up – and Rainbow Weekend will definitely offer them substantial savings.
“The Rainbow Weekend is aimed at getting clients to visit our Xpress Stores to showcase our new ranges and products. But this year we also decided to allow clients to purchase online until midnight on Sunday, giving the armchair shoppers the opportunity to place orders – and also having the items delivered the following day,” Mahomed concludes.
