Despite Pick ’n Pay’s fear that the extortion saga was causing nationwide hysteria, a survey has shown most customers remain loyal to the chain.
A snap survey released this week by Research Surveys, a consumer research company, showed 87% of the public said they would make a point of shopping at Pick ’n Pay.
Pick ’n Pay urged the public to stay calm and chief executive Sean Summers said some customers were panicking unnecessarily.
Pick ’n Pay has confirmed only three cases of poisoning and the company has not heard from the extortionist for 30 days.
”There is an element of hysteria in the public. We hope we can calm down this hysteria by … communicating the straight facts and giving all the necessary information.”
The company has offered a reward of R5-million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the extortionist, who was demanding R600 000, according to sources inside the group.
Summers said the worldwide trend was either for the extortionist to be caught or to simply disappear. ”It is very rare that they continue with their activities,” he said.
He said the company’s call centre had been inundated with calls about possible poisonings since it was set up last week. Thousands of people have also called in offering possible leads to the perpetrator.
”We are following up every single lead … no matter where it comes from or what it is,” he said.
But the call centre also has a shoal of red herrings to deal with.
Pick ’n Pay is doing tests around the clock to determine whether any more people have been poisoned.
Summers says most of the poisoning claims have been routed to family doctors but the group sent 19 people for immediate blood tests. All showed no traces of cyanide poisoning.
Summers said the group had identified a small army of chancers who had tried to make a quick buck out of the episode. ”We have handled their claims discreetly, but strictly,” he said. ”Some of them think Pick ’n Pay is the new Tata ma chance, tata ma million.”