Hirsch’s puts the spring back into Springfield store
Over R20 million was lost just in stock at Hirsch's Store in Springfield Park.
A WHOPPING R20 million is the estimated value of stock looted from the Hirsch’s Store in Springfield Park last week.
This is according to Margaret Hirsch, executive director of Hirsch’s Homestores, who was at the store cleaning up on Friday, July 16. Hirsch’s was among several stores in the area that were vandalised and looted last week.
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“Over R20 million was lost just in stock. All the shop fittings, our computers, switchboard, phones, systems and all the other goods – not to mention our loss of turnover until we get up and running again – so we are looking at a total loss of over R50m. However, we just have to be resilient and bounce back,” she said.
“We watched the whole thing on CCTV. It was soul destroying. It took 20 years of hard work to build up this branch which is one of our flagship stores in KZN – and it was wrecked in an hour,” she added.
The store’s shelves were empty and the safe that housed the cellphone stock had been broken into with an angle grinder and money and goods had also been stolen.
“Today the community came out from far and wide and helped us to pick up all the broken glass and sweep the store clean, and we are hugely grateful for their help.
“We are here to start again. We are going to build our store up from the ashes and ensure that it is bigger and better than before. It’s our intention to be the first shop to re-open in this area so that we are here to serve the community once more,” said Hirsch.
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