we don't want that. at any price.

In July 2021 during the riots Makro was looted and then burnt.

We heard that they rebuilt and reopened in time for Christmas.

Today in the days before the new year we came to shop.

The store is absolutely perfect. Everything is new and clearly there was some thought given to the layout of the store and it has been much  improved.

Walking through the store at a busy time of the year I find myself asking the obvious questions.

Are any of the rioters here, shopping?

Some would probably avoid the new store for a while, out of fear of being identified.

The reality is that the rioters were not disguised in any way. They were easy to identify if anybody was interested.

This being said I am sure that many of the people who ambled in were  looters.

What would that feel like?

To enter the fresh new store, knowing you were the reason for the revamp. 

Looking at the lovely merchandise, all with price tags surely brought back memories of a crazy time when hordes ran through the store, taking what ever they could get their hands on. Until the store was cleaned out. 

It just occurs to me that towards the end when all the best and valuable stuff was gone, what must the store have looked like? I imagine that there might have still  been shelves that still had product. The tail end of those products. 

This view of the store, would reveal products that the looters didn't bother with. I get how some items were difficult to transport and not worth much. These products would use up valuable space as each of the looters had a finite capacity. They had to carry what they looted and transport it home. This limited what they could take and what had to be left behind. 

I assume that towards the end, just before the place was torched there were still items on the shelves. 

Rumour has it that the stationary section was intact. That the rioters, being portrayed as  ignorant in that they were showed no interest in books. I am not sure that this was true. It made no sense. They WERE mostly only after food after all. 

I believe that one would have found a fair bit of stock left behind. 

Imagine what it must be like to be the supplier who's product remained on the shelves after the looting. When they came back, did they manage to get more orders to restock the store. Or did they find that Makro had decided that any product that the looters didn't find worth stealing should not take up space on their shelves. 

The other possibility is that the buyers at Makro got together and decided to riot proof the store by only ordering goods that looters aren't interested in. 

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴 

Dec 2020