Opinion Matters

Reinvent yourself, CBD

Writer Raphael da Silva

Along with all the chaos of Black Friday specials that has seen queues snaking out of many national retail stores, there has been a lot of talk recently about shopping centres in our community.

One is just celebrating its first-year anniversary. A second is in the midst of a shift in strategy after losing a key anchor tenant to the competition. Two others will need to undergo major changes if they are to remain competitive, as they too lose tenants. To top it all off, we have seen notification of a proposal to rezone land for yet another centre. If it does go ahead, we will have three shopping centres within two kilometres of each other.

Amid all this, we continue to hear about the impact this is having on the Hermanus Old Town, where shops and restaurants seem to be closing on an ever-increasing basis, despite the fact that the holiday season, the tourists, and summer are already upon us.

And this is just in Hermanus. If we add the shopping centre in Gansbaai and the one in Kleinmond, we have at least six bigger sized shopping areas in the Overstrand.

Click below to read more.