Descending into the underground shopping mall known as the Galleria in Rosebank, one leaves one of Johannesburg’s more opulent shopping areas for blank windows and papered-over shop fronts.
At the end of a half-deserted corridor is a tiny jewel: A Portas Delicatessen, also known as The Shunting Yard. On a Monday morning, it’s buzzing. Regular customers find their way there, oblivious of the bleak surroundings. Greetings are called out in Greek, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese.
A Portas is the only Johannesburg delicatessen that doubles as … a model train shop. Barrels of Greek olives and imported pasta compete for shelf space with miniature train tracks and carriages. It is almost as old as Johannesburg itself — 109 years — and its ups and downs have been those of the city.
It was founded by Athenasios Portas, who came to Johannesburg from Kalamata in Greece in 1890 to work on the mines. In 1896, at 13b Pritchard Street, he opened for business as retailer and importer of Greek and other delicacies.
George Lagoudis, Portas’s great-nephew, took over the shop in 1970 with his wife Areti. Noticing the trend towards supermarkets and self-service, he decided to go the opposite way and focus on his hobby, model trains. He persuaded Marklin in Germany to let him sell its products.
For eight decades, the shop was in Pritchard Street in the city centre. Then the building was sold in 1970, forcing A Portas to make the first of a number of moves, keeping one step ahead of inner city decline.
Urban economists Pauline Larsen and Richard Tomlinson say shops started moving out of the inner city in the 1960s because of “pull” factors operating at a metropolitan scale — freeway construction and the relative wealth of the white northern suburbs, where the new shopping malls emerged. “Crime and grime” only emerged much later as “push” factors.
Lagoudis managed to stay on in the inner city far longer than other specialist stores, largely because of a loyal clientele. But, soon even the most dedicated customers were reluctant to come into the city centre.
They moved northwards — to Rosebank’s Galleria shopping centre, where Areti’s brother owned a pharmacy. Then Rosebank expanded and suddenly there were too many competing malls. “Checkers closed down. Then Pick ’n Pay shut. Then my brother sold his pharmacy to Clicks and they moved out,” said Areti. Which left A Portas, almost alone.
What keeps a shop going for over a century, when all around, others are closing? Passion, according to Lagoudis, and specialisation.
The personal touch is key in a business that serves a tiny community of about 350 serious train collectors in South Africa. When customers browse through the latest switch-gear or chat about the dioramas they have constructed, they are offered a coffee or a home-made meal, as well as the enthusiasm of a kindred spirit. A sign reads “Warning! Contagious model railroad disease. Adult males very susceptible.”
At one stage the business was 95% food. It is now about 60% trains and 40% food.
The Galleria is not the only shopping centre in trouble — Johannesburg is now awash with dead and dying malls. When malls fail, the large generalised shops fail first, but small specialist shops, which do not depend on passing trade, can survive a little longer.
Just as the Galleria was eclipsed by Rosebank Mall, Northcliff Corner has been overshadowed by the ever- expanding Cresta further west along Beyers Naude Drive. Northcliff Corner is also filled with empty shops, and its state of decline is even more pronounced. The floor tiles are cracked, the lighting dim and the escalator no longer works. However, loyal clients still find their way to Esswex Hobbies, another specialist model train shop.
The JH Isaacs Property Report confirms that the majority of retail spending is in the larger regional shopping centres, like Eastgate, Cresta and Sandton, which have the critical mass to dominate their areas — with the smaller neighbourhood centres unable to compete.
“Retailers are expected to continue consolidating space and closing down stores in less profitable centres”. Similarly Larsen and Tomlinson talk about the continued decentralisation of shopping and an “overtraded retail environment”.
Yet there are no signs that the mall-building mania will stop. Portas’s lease comes to an end in September, when they will move again. They are looking for premises “off the beaten track”, between Rosebank and Sunninghill, further north.
But they know their clients will follow them wherever they go, just as they have been following for more than a century.