After the recent success of the Cigarettes After Sex gig, I thought that maybe the upcoming Hans Zimmer concert might be worth popping along to.
I’m not a huge fan, but if the tickets aren’t too much, then…
Ah. Terrifying.
I wonder what’s left on offer?
Maybe not then.
Who in earth is buying tickets at that price?
Bishopscourt residents and digital nomads, I guess.
Always wanted to use that phrase (which will mean a lot more to local readers than to anyone elsewhere). But yes, its death knell is sounding, it has one foot in the grave, it is moribund and it is clearly no longer pining for the fjords.
What is it?
Padel. Padel is what it is.
About two years ago, some sage bloke wrote a rather witty and perhaps not ever so kind piece about the this sport, which ended with the lines:
Thankfully, it won’t be around for long.
Please remember to recycle your bat on the way out.
And golly gosh, it seems like he was right. The time has come and the fad has passed.
The Daily Maverick told us last week of the upcoming complete over-saturation of the padel market and the inevitable crash that will… er… inevitably follow. Because there are lessons to be learned from those who came before SA:
Trends come and go, and a look at international markets may hold some clues for eager padel investors. In Sweden, which was once a padel pioneer, the market is now struggling with oversaturation. As a result, Swedish giant We Are Padel is applying for corporate restructuring and may have to close half of its 80 venues.
South Africa is following exactly the same trajectory as Sweden did, and look what’s happening here now:
Although the early adopters of padel were cashing in, paying off their courts within a year thanks to their 70% occupancy rates, things have shifted. Most South African padel courts now operate at just 30% to 50% occupancy, according to Roger Barrow, general manager of the Padel Building Company.
And with fewer people playing – and therefore paying – and even more courts appearing:
Virgin Active Padel Club, already home to 65 courts, plans to push that number to nearly 100 by mid-2025
it’s surely only a matter of time before the bottom drops out of the market.
Oh no.
Hey, and to add to those woes, there’s the sudden appearance of Pickleball.
Pickleball is another sport that shit tennis players can try to play to help them forget just how bad they are at tennis.
But I won’t be joining them because (contrary to popular belief) I’m not an septuagenarian living in a Florida retirement complex.
Yet.
Anyway, Pickleball is seen as “a market disruptor” (for translation, see this post), and probably the only thing that will keep local Padel players from defecting is the fact that Pickleball is crazily accessible to many more of the economic demographics, unlike the rather elite and aloof Padel, which for starters, has to be played in a huge aquarium.
Either way, though. It’s clear that the end is indeed naai, Padel naaiers.
Hate to say I told you so.
When it came down to getting Junior a motor car, we narrowed it down to two different possibilities.
And this is a lot of money and a tight decision, so we went and we researched extensively, and we test drove each of them on a few different occasions.
And of course the salespeople – both men in this case – were lovely and charming and helpful and friendly. But we look past the salespeople and we look at the actual car. Because we’ve met salespeople before.
Still, they had a job to do, and they did it: both extolled the virtues of their option and mildly exaggerated the actual facts on the spec sheet. And to their credit, they didn’t do too much shouting about the negative side of things regarding the other choices out there.
They each got their contact just about right, as well: not too much, not too little. We were neither ignored nor bombarded. And they seemed to respect the fact that we would have to make a choice at some stage. Because… well, we cant afford both. (I’m still not 100% sure that we can afford one.)
So when we finally made a decision, it seemed just good manners to let the one guy know that we were going with the other manufacturer. Not something we had to do, but we’re big on respect and politeness in this household.
And so we sent him a message (all contact both ways had been via Whatsapp apart from the times when we were actually at the dealership), saying thanks for your time, but we’ve chosen to go with the other vehicle, all the best, Us.
His response was friendly and magnanimous:
Ah well. That’s a shame. But thanks for letting me know and all the best.
Ja right. Was it bollocks.
Nothing back. Mr Friendly for the past three weeks couldn’t even be arsed to respond.
Cut us dead.
Because Mr Friendly was actually Mr Salesman-Twat in disguise and it was all an act.
I mean, I shouldn’t have expected anything else but wow. What a two-faced POS.
I’m not naming and shaming. Why stoop to his level?
Just see it – like we have – as a reminder that salespeople are always going to salesperson, and you’d do really well to overlook anything and everything they say and do, and make sure that you are clued up and have everything – EVERYTHING – down in writing.
And just be nice, and as genuine as you can.
Just be careful out there when you’re looking for your (very) last minute bargain for a Christmas gift.
They know that you’re (quite reasonably) panicking about getting that Xmas gift you overlooked, and they’re ready to take advantage.
Sometimes it’s subtle:
A frankly ridiculous price for a shitty knock-off backpack anyway.
But sometimes they are even more brazen and the thievery is even more heinous:
I’ve mentioned before just how much I love Checkers, but this time, I’m leaving my card in my wallet, thank you very much.
As ever, whatever you’re doing today, have a nice day.
It’s still one of the finds of recent times for me. It saved my son half an hour of queuing to pay for parking after the football last week. It means I don’t have to worry about whether a place takes cards for parking payments or if I have change or where I put my parking ticket or anything.
It’s live across SA at loads of locations, with more being added on a regular basis. Just like the behemoth mall that is Canal Walk. And because it’s launching there in Black Friday week, they’ve got a double deal on just for you. And you. OK, you as well.
Firstly, save R20 off your first (paid) parking by using my referral code when you sign up:
And then, once Admyt launches at Canal Walk on Thursday 28th, you can have free parking…
…for THREE DAYS there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the promo codes below:
So that’s no ticket to lose, no change to have to find to pay, no queues to brave on the way out when you’re exhausted and just want to go home, and that swanky VIP feeling as you drive to the barrier and it opens to wave you straight through.
The first three are really handy; the last one is still just very cool.
Sign up on the interwebs here (not forgetting that referral code: TRE162273), and then get the app on Apple here, or Google here.