FROM BEHIND THE PAYWALL
STUTTAFORDS: The unnecessary death of SA’s last department store
First published in June 2017.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Grand old Stuttafords, once the Harrods of SA, will be shutting up shop on August 1, representing perhaps SA’s largest corporate failure in recent years. The tragedy is that its demise could have been avoided had it not been for the apparent bad blood between the two main shareholders, the Ellerines and the Rubensteins. Stuttafords, the 159-year-old department store synonymous with SA’s retail glory years, will shut its doors permanently on August 1. This makes it the largest casualty of the slow demise of the country’s consumer spending. Founded by English immigrant Samson Rickard Stuttaford, who modelled it on London’s swish department stores, it became the grande dame of early 20th century SA retail. The first store opened at 5 Harrington Street, just behind the Castle in Cape Town in 1858 and it became an institution – the template for imitators like Greatermans, Garlicks and John Orr’s. "Stuttafords was the epitome of Johannesburg fashion and culture," says Gerald Garner, who r...
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