Ask any South African shopper and they’ll tell you there isn’t much you can buy with R12.50 these days. Now thanks to the new Batman and Robin of FMCG partnerships, you can take home a tasty burger with all the toppings for that price every single Friday. Pick n Pay and FNB have launched an exclusive new deal, giving customers the items they need to make four cheeseburgers at home for just R50. You’ll need a registered Smart Shopper card and to pay with your FNB card in-store to qualify for the deal that would normally R150. If you don’t bank with First National, never fear – just swipe your registered Smart Shopper card and the price is R100… still a good deal in anyone’s books, and super convenient on a Friday night when mom has lost the will to think of what to feed you lot, AGAIN. This is the latest in a series of value-driven offers from The Big Blue and FNB’s newly launched partnership, which saw the retailer become the primary grocery partner in FNB’s eBucks programme this week.

Comment: R50 is a really, really low price… is it even sustainable? This initiative may well be more about driving shoppers to use both cards than making a buck on the promo, also in the hope that they walk out with other items in the basket while they’re there.

Coffee lovers gather round: SPAR is upping its in-store game by partnering with Vida e Caffè in select SPARs and KWIKSPARs across the ZA. The collaboration is an attempt to boost the retailer’s coffee credentials while for Vida it means bringing in its premium coffee, beverage and food experience to more South African communities. “This collaboration is about more than just coffee – it’s about bringing our customers the quality, convenience, and exceptional service they expect from SPAR,” explains Aqeehl Najaar, head of convenience and partnerships at SPAR. “Vida e caffè’s reputation for delivering an engaging customer experience along with premium coffee adds value to the SPAR network.” The rollout has already begun in five Jozi and Cape Town-based SPARs, with further expansion planned in the months to come.

Comment: Retailers partnering with specialists (see Krispy Kreme and Kauai in Checkers) is a trend that is catching on. We look forward to enjoying some premium coffee at a SPAR near us soon.

Last week, small-scale farmers from almost 60 community food gardens across SA and neighbouring countries enjoyed the opportunity to deliver farm-fresh produce directly to Shoprite and Checkers’ customers during its ‘Market Day’. Launched in 2017, Market Day provides Shoprite-supported community food gardens with access to the retailer’s large customer base, as well as a platform to generate income and gain valuable retail experience. The Group supports over 4,000 home gardens and more than 260 community food gardens under its ‘Act For Change’ programme across South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia. Remaining on the topic of supplier empowerment, Amazon South Africa recently hosted its inaugural Seller Summit in Cape Town, with more than 300 entrepreneurs in attendance. The event provided masterclasses from local and international experts, practical insights and networking opportunities to help the local businesses grow as third-party sellers on the platform. Amazon South Africa plans to make the summit an annual event, with regional workshops held throughout the year to help its seller partners scale their businesses online.

As you will remember, Asda in the UK issued a profit warning last month saying… oh, we apologise. You don’t recall? Well, it did, saying that its profit would “materially reduce” this year due to its investments in lowering prices and boosting product availability. The announcement saw share prices dropping among Asda’s competitors too – by 8% in the case of Tesco – due to the market fearing an ensuing price war. Industry analysts have come out saying that an all-out price battle is unlikely, with some reminding us that the likes of Tesco and Aldi are already winning on price perception. Tesco is due to announce its results today, after it has already guided that operating profits should rise by 5%. Crossing the Atlantic, amid tariff and recession fears, Walmart believes that it has a nifty little trick up its sleeve to face up to the challenges – its shoppers, no less, but more specifically, members of the Walmart+ subscription programme. Walmart+ members make up almost half of spending across Walmart’s website and app in the US and spend nearly three times as much as non-Walmart+ subscribers. And finally, Temu has signed what they’re calling a “Memorandum of Understanding” with DHL, which, as we understand, basically means enhanced collaboration between the two to support the SMMEs supplying the cheekily low-priced online market place.

Loop, a proudly South African delivery management platform, has welcomed its new strategic investor, none other than Trade Intelligence parent company Smollan. Combined with the ongoing support of its existing investor, Lightstone, the new partnership with Smollan is set to fuel the next phase of growth for Loop, enabling it to further revolutionise the delivery landscape in SA and beyond. Established in 2016 as ‘cowa-bunga’ and renamed to ‘Loop’ five years later, the business makes life easier for the supreme triumvirate that (quite literally) drives our industry – business, driver and customer – with an all-in-one solution covering delivery route planning and optimisation, order tracking, data analytics and more. Loop’s clients include on-demand giants such as Sixty60, fast-food outlets Nando’s and Kauai, as well as OneCart, Emit, TeakIce and a host of other leaders in the SA delivery space. “We are delighted to partner with Loop and contribute to their exciting journey,” says Jeanette Hern, Smollan Chief Corporate Development Officer. “Loop's innovative platform and commitment to revolutionising the delivery landscape aligns perfectly with our strategic focus on supporting forward-thinking businesses.”

Good news: According to the Competition Commission’s March 2025 edition of the ‘Essential Food Price Monitoring Report’, some food prices have started falling after the highs of recent years. The report tracks the prices of commodities and foods that South Africans identify as being ‘essential’ (i.e. maize meal, sunflower oil, canned fish, eggs and IQF chicken) and keeps track of something it calls “producer-to-retail spread”, i.e. the percentage difference between the producer price of goods and the retail price based on publicly available information. Although, the Comish warns, it should never be used “to make inferences of anticompetitive conduct” by any business, it does provide us with some useful indicators. Like, for example, that the producer to retail spread of sunflower oil remains at its highest level since 2021, while for pilchards, it has been on a downward trend over the last six months. Egg producer prices are currently cheaper than they were a year and a half ago and brown bread is seeing a lower than average retail price – to the delight, no doubt, of the many South Africans who consume it. The complete report can be accessed on the Commission’s website here.

Earlier this week we had a story all written and ready to hit send on Trump’s tariffs. What were we thinking getting a jump on the news? So here’s a rewrite in the hope that things don’t change again an hour post publishing. On what was dubbed “Liberation Day”, April 2nd saw US President Trump announce his much-feared tariff increases. The increases for all countries (excl. Russia) were dramatically presented on a poster, with SA being hit with 30%, effectively ending Africa’s duty-free access to the US through AGOA – but no one was really sure. It looked like most of SA’s commodities exports to the US would be exempt, including platinum-group metals (used in the US vehicle sector), as well as base metals, precious metals, and coal. However, vehicles and agriculture would be hard hit. (Just for perspective, over 2024, SA exported R157bn to the US of which 35% was precious metals, 22% vehicles, 14% iron and steel products, 7% minerals and 3% fruit and veg.) But as of today, it would appear that the implementation of the broad and sweeping tariff hikes is paused for 90 days, with an updated rate of 10% for most countries, including SA (but excl. China, who was at 125% at time of print, and not paused, with Trump confident that China wants to “make a deal”).

Comment: What does this mean for SA? We’re not sure, but we do know this much. The innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of South Africans will likely drive diversification to reduce the reliance on the US. China remains our biggest export destination (R220bn for 2024), while Germany comes in third, only R4bn behind the US, at R153bn. However, a global economic slowdown, and significant uncertainty, is far from ideal when our own GDP growth forecast for 2025 sits at only +1.7%