Durban has a 'chilled out bru' start to Black Friday

Nosipho Ndlovu woke up early, expecting the hustle and bustle of Black Friday at the Pavilion mall in Durban, but instead was met with an underwhelming number of people when compared to previous years.

“There are less people this year. Even the discounts are less than the previous years,” said Ndlovu.

An employee at the Game store, who did not want to be named, shared Ndlovu's sentiments: “There was a line when we opened at midnight but it died down at around 2am. There is a lot less foot traffic this year,” said the employee.

The hot tickets in store seemed to be flat screen TV sets. Ndlovu opted to get a home theatre system, a microwave and a kettle.

Ndlovu, who works at a retail store at the mall, said she would pop into various stores throughout the day looking for deals.

“I still have a lot more shopping to do. I always budget for Black Friday,” she said.

Elsewhere in the mall about 30 people waited eagerly at the Toys “R” Us store to buy Christmas gifts.

Deenyo Haseenudeen had been in the queue outside the store since 6am and said he would be going in for a mad toy dash. “I am just rushing in and smashing whatever comes my way,” he said.

At Makro in Cornubia, it was also a quiet morning with a few cars in the parking lot and a huge marquee set up with appliances and electronics.

The big tickets were fridges and TV sets as they closed off their five-day Black Friday specials that started on Monday.