Half a century of hardware

A hardware supply store in Wynberg in the Cape began as a corner cafe back in 1957. The original owner still fulfills hardware needs to locals and new customers alike.

In the southern suburbs of Cape Town, the railway line, which runs parallel to the mountain from the city out to Simon's Town, cuts every suburb in two. This has resulted in the roads, which provide access from one side to the other of the railway line, becoming congested during rush hour, even bottlenecked, when commuters are in a hurry to get children to school or to get to work. Throughout the day, these access routes tend to be consistently busy.
The busy four-way stop at the intersection between Park and Batts Roads in Wynberg is on one such access route from the section of Wynberg closest to the Mountain to the eastern part of the suburb further away from the mountain. It is here that you will find Kismet Suuply Store.

Children have grown up with Kismet as a local landmark. Owner Mahood Mohamed Fakier has been running a business on the corner of Park and Batts for half a century.

UNIQUE FEATURE

Contractors from all over the Peninsula know about Kismet because of an unique feature that Fakier has implemented: over the past half century he has consistantly been open from 8:00am to 8:30pm daily. He provides no delivery service, but does offer his customers the luxury of shopping late into the evening. He closes for an hour for lunch everyday except Friday, when the store is closed from 12:30 to 14:30., the store is open on Sundays until 2pm and on Public holidays until 5pm.

Fakier estimates there are more than 5 000 line items displayed on the shelves in the store and on hooks up to the ceiling on every wall. Here you can find anything from plumbing suppllies, carpentry tools, fasteners of every description, motor spares, bicycle tubes and accessories and every harware item you may need. One of the services provided in the yard is the refilling of gas cylinders.

"There was just two of us when I began the store, now we are a team of 15," Fakier says. However Kismet remains a local store which offers personalised service to familiar customers and strangers alike. He explains that Kismet means 'luck' or 'destiny' in Arabic. For Wynbergers and Capetonians after regular working hours, Kismet is indeed the lucky store.