To be clear: the endgame is not microchipped shoppers or tattoos on foreheads. Unless that’s your thing. But it is true that Woolworths, having put the pigeon among the trolls last month by announcing that WCafé’s would now be going cashless, has gone ahead and reduced the number of tillpoints accepting cash in actual Woolies stores. Currently, only a quarter to a third of tills at stores now accept both cash and cards. The rest have ‘cards only’ signage. The downside to this is the occasional logjam of cash-wielding punters at the front of the queue. This approach by Woolies reflects the reality that cash transactions at its stores are “likely less than 20% by volume and easily below 10% of value”. The benefits to the business are somewhat nebulous – smaller cash floats and less likelihood of armed robbery in stores.

Comment: But it does give shoppers with an axe to grind an excuse to go elsewhere – like Checkers, which is making a play for SA’s wealthier shoppers.

We normally try to keep ourselves above the rough and tumble of disputes between the big retailers and their franchisees. It often comes down to a hopelessly tangled “he said/she said” scenario and as neutral documenters of the state of play in the industry, we can’t pick sides. And to be clear, we’re not in this instance, but the numbers involved are significant, so we thought you should know that Pick n Pay is bringing an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court against J.A. Baladakis, whose family has a thirty-year history with the Group, to appropriate his stores over nearly R200m debt he allegedly owes them. Baladakis says the debt has resulted from Pick n Pay's implementation of a bulk discounting model six years ago; Pick n Pay notes that under the model other, larger franchise groups have managed to stay “both profitable and fully paid up without any outstanding debt."

Comment: That is a chunk of change, and not one that we can see PnP letting slip through its fingers.

Opposite the Shoprite in Robert Sobukwe Street in Sunnyside, Pretoria, seekers after bulk groceries might chance their luck at cheekily named discounter Sharprite. The Chinese-owned knockoff has a cheerful red logo, offers only unrefrigerated goods, and has opened another branch in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. One more, and we reckon the Big Guy will come after them. Next, big up to SPAR, which received recognition from Athletics South Africa at the national athletics body’s 2023 awards dinner in Durban last weekend. “Having sponsored women’s road running for 35 years, we value our partnership with ASA,” said PR, communications and sponsorships manager Mpudi Maubane. The retailer has not only empowered women, she went on, but also encouraged a healthy lifestyle and enabled many talented South African and African road-running women to achieve greatness on the national and international stages.

Comment: SPAR’s sponsorship of women’s sport in South Africa is integral to its branding and central to the continued goodwill of South Africa’s core shopper demographic.

To Walmart, once more, which has come to the stern attention of US District Judge P. Casey Pitts, who notes that in three proposed class actions it is alleged that in exchange for preferred treatment at its stores, Walmart pressured battery manufacturer Energizer to inflate wholesale battery prices to prevent other retailers from undercutting Walmart on price. This left shoppers paying about a third more for Energizer batteries in store; the class actions seek compensatory damages for violations of federal and state antitrust laws and state consumer protection laws. Next, in news that has left England’s pre-school teachers reeling, Tesco has launched a range of tubeless aluminium foil, at a saving of 12.5 million cardboard rolls each year, but very much to the detriment of millions of kindergarten construction projects. Finally, in India, HyperCITY Retail, one of the largest hypermarket chains in the country, has unveiled the ‘Hyper Food Island’, an exclusive section that showcases an assortment of niche international and national brands that might not be getting the love they deserve on shelf. “The island is specially curated to embark on the tantalizing culinary journey of our customers,” explains CEO Ramesh Menon.

Comment: Kind of a cool idea, actually, adding interest and energy to the store, and increasing profile for the brands.

Initiated by Trade Intelligence parent company Smollan, and developed by digital transformation agency DY/DX, Smartfill is a dispenser-driven solution to the sticky issue of ever-proliferating packaging waste, and a step on the road towards the promised land of package-free FMCG. It has already been successfully piloted in the Tembisa SPAR, where shoppers can use their own containers or paper bags, fill them with the desired amount of product (in this case, coffee, sugar or rice) from SmartFill dispensers, and only pay for the product they take. “Consumers purchased varied amounts that are not prepackaged on shelves, while the retailer enjoyed higher margins by selling from bulk at small-size prices,” says DY/DX’s Nevo Hadas. The pilot tripled the sales of product under 1kg, moving over 550kg of product. And in Bangladesh, a Unilever pilot went one step further, demonstrating that punters were eager to embrace the solution even in the packaging-intensive personal care space.

Comment: An important and inspiring development on the way to a circular economy.

An appreciative tilt of the glass this week to Bacardi, who has just produced 150,000 of the iconic bottles of its St Germain elderflower liqueur in a furnace that is 60% fuelled by hydrogen, cutting emissions by 30%. “It’s only through making change as an industry that we can bring significant change to our impact on the environment,” says VP for Safety, Quality and Sustainability Rodolfo Nervi. Moving on, Eskort has expanded its Gauteng production capacity by 50% with a 10,000m² factory extension in Heidelberg and the introduction of a mezzanine for faster picking, enabling the business to meet growing retail demand. The expanded plant boasts the largest continuous box freezer in Africa, able to freeze 120,000kg of product to -18°C every 24 hours. Little known facts about the business: the farmers who produce its pork are shareholders in the company, its pork is antibiotic-free, and its biosecurity is of the first order, backed by international and local certification.

Comment: Two businesses deploying innovation and taking the responsible approach.

A word this week from the hoary sages over at StatsSA, and it’s not a good one. They have shaken the bones and descried the entrails and consulted the auguries, and what they have established is that Retail Trade Sales – perhaps the most important economic marker in this great industry we call home – were down -1% for 2023 from the previous year, as discretionary spending fell prey to higher inflation and any number of other unfavourable variables – load shedding, depressed consumer sentiment, high unemployment (now at a formal 32.1%), take your pick. Of the seven categories of retailers measured, retailers in textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods alone recorded positive growth, at +5.7%; general dealers were the largest negative contributor at -2.4%. On the upside, sales did climb an unexpected +2.7% YoY for the month of December, with our own sector, represented as food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores barely growing at +0.2%.

Comment: A dismal year, as you didn’t need StatsSA to tell you.