WHEN HE WAS FIRED, HE STARTED HIS
OWN EMPIRE
silence for a few quivering moments, he delivered a bombshell that nearly knocked me off
my feet with shock. Yelling almost hysterically,
he said that he and his co-directors had had
enough of me. To my utter astonishment, he
told me I was fired.
I suppose my response must have sounded pathetic. I kept babbling on about building Checkers, about my loyalty as a company man, about
our fathers having been colleagues who trusted
one another. There was history between us, we
were friends...
M
ost people in South Africa not only
know about Pick ‘n Pay supermarkets,
but enjoy doing their shopping there. I
do. But where does Pick ‘n Pay come
from?
In 2011, I had a privilege of interviewing Mr
Raymond Ackerman, telephonically. I was really
humbled by the fact that he took time from his
busy schedule, to speak to some stranger from
Zangakithi News, that he had never heard of before. When I interviewed Mr Ackerman, I had already read his book entitled Hearing The Grashoppers Jump, where he talks about how he started
Pick ‘n Pay. Here is what Ackerman says in his
book:
At 35, I was General Manager of 85 Checkers
supermarkets, the jewels in the profit crown of
department-store group Greatermans. I had
worked incredibly hard to build the Checkers
chain which, as the original dedicated company
man, I saw as my life’s work. Also much on my
mind that morning was my wife Wendy, who
was very ill in her fourth pregnancy. The doctors still feared she might lose the baby, so I
had spent the weekend taking care of her and
our three small children.
“he told me I was fired”
Since I was in close daily touch with the Chairman and Managing Director of the Greatermans
Board, Norman Herber, over the affairs of
Checkers, it was no surprise to be summoned to
his office when I arrived at work that morning.
I beat an unhurried path to his door after giving
my secretary some letters and casting my eye
on the day’s mail. The man I found waiting for
me was in a terrible state. His knuckles were
all bandaged, blood seeped through from the
raw dermatitis beneath, and tension radiated
from every fibre of his body. I was immediately
concerned – he seemed so strange, ill. I asked
him what was wrong. After starring at me in
Today, not even the humblest employee could
be summarily dismissed that way it happened
to me in 1966. Then, however, no niceties of
labour law applied. When I refused to sign a
bogus letter of resignation, drawn up I am sure
so that it could be flashed around to absolve
the Greatermans Board from any implication in
my leaving, I was told to go and clear my desk
and get out there and then...
It was to be quite a time before I was able to
identify one of the prime reasons behind my
dismissal from Checkers. Norman Herber had
fired me because he didn’t have the courage to
give me more freedom. If he had, I could have
built Checkers the way I’ve build Pick ‘n Pay.
There would not even have been a Pick ‘n Pay.
‘This’ said Wendy, ‘is the
best day of your life, Raymond!’
On that fateful day Monday in October 1966 I
went downstairs and cleared my desk as instructed, entrusting important papers to Keith
Blumgart, who was later to enjoy a long and
fruitful career, up to retirement, with me in
Pick ‘n Pay. Keith was able deliver my precious
papers to my home later...
When I reeled out of the Greatermans building,
all I could think about was breaking the news to
my ill and stressed wife. With lightning speed I
had gone from being the high-flying head of a
booming food chain to an unemployed, 35 -year
-old father of almost four.
I headed for Zoo Lake and walked round and
round and round. I thought about my whole life
up to that awful day, about the beginnings of
our family in South Africa. I thought a lot about
my father and his tribulations.
Every time I tried to think forward, nothing
came up. All I could see was a grey mist, with
Wendy, the children and me milling around in
confusion. I had absolutely no idea where I was
supposed to go from there – other than home,
where I could put it off no longer, to tell my