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This story has big guys. It has little(ish) guys. It has Constitutional Court judges and an exotic coastal setting. Well, Virginia Circle in Durban, anyway. It has millions at stake. We refer, of course, to Everfresh’s Constitutional Court appeal – on the grounds of ubuntu nogal – against its eviction by Shoprite from a centre purchased on said circle by The Big Red One. At issue was a lease which Everfresh had negotiated with a previous owner, and which it felt it had a right to renew. But even a “promise to negotiate” – which apparently Shoprite had not made – is unenforceable, so Everfresh changed its tack, and went from the Pietermartizburg High to the Constitutional Court to argue that ubuntu – another word for niceness – should be embedded into our Constitution, and thus somehow in their lease agreement. To which the Constitutional Court said, nice try, and ordered costs.

Comment: It’s just not fair! It’s not, not, not!

AGM time over at the Fine Emporium, where Woolies took the opportunity to announce sales up 10.3% for the 20 weeks of the FY we like to call 12, with like store sales up 7%. This against figures of 10.7% and 6.9% for the same period last year, respectively. Like other retailers, it is taking a dimmer view of the rest of the year, but still continues to expand like a large and impeccably-suited buffalo into the rest of Africa, with three stores in Nigeria being opened with joint venture Chellarams Plc, and one Ugandan and three Tanzanian shops already trading. The election of Mr Susman as non-independent Chairman encountered if not a headwind then a stiffish breeze in the form of 15.8% of shareholders who felt he was a little close to things still to be as lofty and patrician as the role demands.

Comment: C’mon, gents. This is Mr Susman we’re talking about.

Pick n Pay’s recent press has been mixed, as the expression goes if the expressor is in a kindly mood, with trading margin down from 2.8% to 1.8%, territory into which few of our major retailers ever venture, trading profit down 32%, and much trumpeted market share losses to its competitors beyond the quivering folds of the Boerewors curtain. But all is far from lost as one set of significant numbers makes clear: the store numbers. Ever elusive, constantly shifting, they nevertheless tell a powerful story: four new corporate supermarkets opened in the current FY, five franchise supermarkets, 14 corporate liquor stores, six franchise liquor stores and nine clothing stores. Three Family Store franchises were converted to corporate stores, and Boxer opened four new superstores, six Punch stores, a Boxer Build and a liquor store. And according to Mr B, plans are on the worn but sturdy old boardroom table for nine new supermarkets (six corporate and three franchise), a dozen liquor stores, six clothing stores, and nine Boxer superstores as well as three Punch stores.

Comment: Although new DCs are on hold until Longmeadow is ticking along more smoothly...

Consol Glass has opened its environmentally efficient state of the art, world class and thus presumably cutting edge new bottle-making plant near Nigel (or Nige, as we like to call it), where it will be producing glass bottles for beverages aimed at those noted eco-freaks, the drinkers. From the ground up, the plant will have cost Consol a whacking 1.9beeelion ront and will bring five new furnaces on stream, meeting glass demand for decades to come. Some of those helse numbers: the plant will add 12% to Consol’s capacity, popping out 1.6million containers a day, or 530million per annum every year. 20% of this will find its way to the US, Europe and Africa, in the form, obviously, of exports. And needless to say, recycling is going to be big in Nige in the next few decades.

Comment: A touch of glass, we rather thought.

In the six, thirsty months which ended in September, SAB grew both turnover and market share despite flat (we love that word in this context) volume growth and declining soft drink sales, which is pretty darned smart if you ask us, and we aren’t for a moment suggesting that you do. Revenue was up 10% to $2.7bigmanlybillions, with sales maintained with investments in marketing and sales to an increasingly stretched consumer base, and the whole shebang underpinned by cost efficiencies. Market share grew marginally in the 89-90% bracket, although Castle Lite, revelling in its new status as a premium brand, grew at 25% and must be knocking a couple of the other green bottles off the wall.

Comment: It must be hellish for the brands scrapping for the other 10%, which explains in part why our shelves and fridges lack the rich variety one encounters elsewhere in the drinking world.

The Big Red Bank, Absa, has notified an excited market that its ‘tap-and-go’ contactless payment facility is now available to both standalone point of sale (POS) merchants and those who utilise advanced or integrated point of sale till systems. This means that tech-savvy punters, of whom there are latterly an increasing number, will be able to airily wave their contactless card in front of a secure contactless reader at the point of sale and the transaction will be completed, speedily and as if by magic. With no signature to check or PIN to enter, we are assured, merchants can expect faster transactions, shorter lines and happier customers.

Comment: Well sophisticated, innit.

A jolly, twinkly-eyed, bearded and we can only imagine red-suited economist over at the Credit Guarantee Insurance Company has tipped retailers off that according to his calculations, they could be in for a treat, as he expects sales to rise by 7.5% at current prices, and 4% in real terms. This after StatsSA announced that retail sales for September were up 8.3% YOY, and in the context, that word again, of record low interest rates which leave that pleasant couple the punters with more readies to fork out on little Johnny. However, they might be more inclined this year to spend it on food, clothing and cheaper items liked spiced oranges and tin soldiers than on the X-Box 360s and BMXs he’s become accustomed to receiving.

Comment: We’re taking a wait and see approach, but putting the cookies and milk out just in case.

In England, the Intellectual Property Office has thwarted Nestlè’s long-running campaign to have Cadbury’s ownership of the colour purple (pantone 2865c for the purists, you know who you are) revoked. Providing a glass and a half of hope for Nestlè, however, is the fact that this ruling applies only to chocolate bars and drinks, with all other chocolate-related products still under consideration.

As of Jan 2012, Coca-Cola’s Valprè brand of bottled water will be served on SAA flights around the world. The refreshing but curiously flavourless beverage is packaged in Coca-Cola’s eco-friendly PlantBottle packaging, and has the added advantage of not being La Vie de Luc, which was brought to market by a gentleman still wanted for questioning by the European authorities after his Christmas escape some years ago from a Swiss prison where he was being held on money laundering charges, and whence he made his way to the plush wineland’s estate where the water he used to sell to SAA was bottled.

Qedani Mahlangu, the Gauteng MEC for economic development has warned, firing liberally into the crowd with a 12-gauge slung low, that certain large retailers are attempting to squeeze black entrepreneurs in the liquor industry out of business, and that should they wish to open liquor franchises in the townships they will have to “have a black person in their franchise”.