That turned out to be a good
thing, because from the 15 December 2010 to 15 January 2011,
we exhausted our budget anyway.
The lesson?
A three-week holiday in Thailand costs exactly the same
as a four-week working holiday at home in Cape Town!
SIZE DOES
NOT MATTER
Early one morning, during a four-day getaway at Avalon Springs,
my two-year-old grandson and I were playfully rough and
tumbling on the bed, when he accidentally head-butted me
on my eye.
My eye immediately started swelling and the following day
I had the proverbial black eye.
He was unharmed, and while I sat woefully applying an ice-pack,
he stood in the doorway, looked at me sheepishly and said
‘Shame.’
The lesson?
Dynamite does indeed come in small packages.
SAB OWNS THE
TOWNSHIPS
During December, I was part of a team that did promotions
at 30 taverns in the townships of Cape Town. I had never
heard of some of these places. Places like Du Noon, Masipumelele
and Brown’s Farm.
The first thing that hits you of course
is the poverty and extreme conditions that most of these
people live under. I say most, because here too there are
scales.
But the one passion that they all seem to share is for drinking
beer.
Lots of beer.
Every tavern or shebeen that we entered
was packed to capacity. It did not matter whether the promo
was at 11am or 9pm. The shebeens were packed, and each one
had a steady stream of take-out customers.
Sexy babes in designer outfits pulled up
in BMWs, executives in Volvo S40s, grizzled old men pushing
supermarket trolleys, and muscular young men who carried
cases of beer on their shoulders. There was even a woman
who used a pram to cart off her wares.
They all had one common purpose.
They were there to buy beer. Lots of beer. Cases and cases
of beer.
There are hundreds of taverns in each township
and each one is branded to the hilt.
The sign outside reads Castle Lager, the vinyl cushions
on the benches read Miller Genuine Draft, the plastic table
cloths read Carling Black Label and the walls are plastered
with SAB posters and price cards.
When we arrived at one such tavern in Langa
on a Friday afternoon, a SAB truck was delivering 150 crates
of 660ml quarts. This tavern is not much bigger than an
average-sized kitchen.
‘That’s a lot of beer.’
I said to the tavern owner. ‘Do you sell so much beer
per week?’
‘No’ she responded smiling.
‘This is for tonight and maybe tomorrow morning. The
truck will be back tomorrow afternoon.’
The
lesson?
No prize for guessing who makes SAB South Africa one
of the nation’s richest and largest manufacturing
firms. |
|
