JAMIE CARR: Dis-Chem in rude health
While Vertu is too bling for the average civilian, and yet insufficiently ostentatious to attract the eye of the gold Lamborghini market
If, by some chance, the heads of all SA’s retailers were to find themselves lined up on sun loungers with balmy waters lapping around their collective ankles over the festive season, there might be stern words directed at the Dis-Chem team for breaking omertà. It’s a bit like a cricket match in which all the batsmen are scratching around muttering, "bloody awful pitch", "greentop", "turning square" and the like — except the one who is dispatching the ball over the pavilion with regularity and without breaking a sweat. While it’s hard not to sympathise with those whose best-laid business plans are falling victim to the lack of loose change in the consumer’s pocket, Dis-Chem is just getting on with what it does extremely well.Alas and alack, Vertu is no more. Founded by Nokia in 2002, the manufacturer of handmade, luxury mobile phones was designed to attract those true believers in the power of the consumer-led economic recovery — those for whom paying a small fortune for an iPhone X ...
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