South Africans more likely to ride to malls during Black Friday sales

At the end of November, many retailers traditionally hold grand sales, with discounts of up to 90%. People look forward to this time for good deals, including for Christmas presents, and spend more time in shopping centres during the sales period. According to Maxim’s statistics, the increase in demand for rides to shopping centres starts in early November and peaks on the weekend after the last Friday of the month, the official date of Black Friday.

Thus, in November people were 36% more likely to order rides to or from malls than in October. And on Black Friday itself, the number of such orders was almost 4 times higher than usual. In terms of time, the peaks were at 12:00–14:00 and 17:00–20:00, which means that people went shopping at lunchtime and immediately after work.

An interesting fact is that, based on the analysis of rides ordered to and from shopping centres, the number of women and men who went shopping was roughly equal.

If we talk about the most popular malls among Maxim users, then, for example, in Cape Town it is Liberty Promenade Shopping Centre, with Parow Centre and Blue Route Mall in second and third place, respectively. In Gebeha (Port Elizabeth), the absolute leader is Baywest Mall, with Greenacres Shopping Centre in second place and Summerstrand Village Shopping Centre in third place.

“I decided to drive on Black Friday because I knew that people always shop on that day and there would be a lot of orders. And driving to shopping centres is convenient, it’s not like when your circle around the neighbourhood looking for the house you need. People were in a good mood, excited about their buys. A couple of times I even had to get out of the car to open the door for clients, because they had so many bags in their hands,” says a Maxim driver.