Dar es Salaam. South African retail giant Massmart, owners of Game Department Stores has closed its lone outlet at Mlimani City in Dar es Salaam with December 24 being their last trading day.
Shoppers who went to the store on Christmas Day were met with closed doors and blue seals on the padlocks, though there was no announcement, the wiping out of their logo off the wall gave a clear picture.
Instead, the entrance to the once upon a time vibrant shopping outlet had been taken over by Santa Claus who took pictures with children and their parents.
The closure comes after a 12-month period during which they tried without success, to sell the stores in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda to local investors.
The stores’ official shutdown, marks the end of its seven-year struggle in the market and adding to a growing list of local and foreign retailers that have closed shop in recent years in East Africa including another South African retailer Shoprite.
In a notice that has widely circulated in October, the firm announced that it had embarked consultations which was focused on the reasons for the proposed closure and a decision has been reached to close the affected stores.
The firm then took immediate steps to undertake clearance sale in all their stores in each of these countries.
“We would like to thank our Game colleagues, customers and business partners for their loyal support during the years that we have operated in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda,” reads the notice.
Anton Wagenaar, a director at the South African retailer, said the decision to exit East Africa was made in March 2020 and the supermarket commenced negotiations with various landlords to surrender their leases ahead of time.
Game vice-president of merchandise Neville Hatfield said the review had sought to “investigate, as a preferred option, the opportunity to sell our store to local investors”, but the initiative had “unfortunately … not yielded meaningful results”.
Tanzania has become a tough market for retailers following the collapse of several supermarkets that set up shop in the country including Shoprite, Nukumat and Uchumi
