Wednesday was a victory-disaster” for Grahamstown fast-food outlet owner, Pierre Pienaar.
From early Wednesday morning the nationwide Steers R10 rib burger special saw hordes of hungry Grahamstown customers rush to sink their teeth into the once-off offer, resulting in an unexpected hurdle.
Wednesday was a victory-disaster” for Grahamstown fast-food outlet owner, Pierre Pienaar.
From early Wednesday morning the nationwide Steers R10 rib burger special saw hordes of hungry Grahamstown customers rush to sink their teeth into the once-off offer, resulting in an unexpected hurdle.
The High Street fast food outlet ran out of stock for the special by 4.30pm, having sold more than 2 800 rib burgers.
The branch then shifted to selling a regular beef burger for R10 until closing time, having ultimately served more than 5 000 burger specials and making more than 450 deliveries by the end of the day, according to Pienaar.
He said it was a challenge for him and his staff to meet the high demand. He said there were no serious complaints, despite what he described as “chaos and long queues extending into the street”. He said the event made a statement about South Africans and the psychology of low prices”.
Pienaar said he'd had to drive to Port Elizabeth to buy additional stock, placing urgent orders with the franchise’s suppliers and had to source rolls from nearly each place in town that sells… twice”.
In preparation for future specials, Pienaar said they would plan better to cope with the high demand, especially to ensure that each order is completed in less than five minutes.
Franchises nationwide disappointed hundreds of customers, who vented their anger on social networking site Twitter, where Steers quickly became a trending topic in South Africa.
Many branches closed before mid-morning after some individuals and companies had placed large-scale orders that swiftly reduced the available supplies.
Despite mass sales for the popular chain, Steers has said it would send a formal apology notice to all franchisees, following a challenging day in production and many upset customers, according to the Times Live news site.
