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We’re six weeks shy of interims, but what the heck. In the 20 weeks to mid-January, Clicks saw Group sales increase by a handsome 13.6%, with their cash-only business model unencumbered by bad debt from flailing consumers. Clicks’ comparable stores were solid at 10.6%, against internal inflation of just 3.4%. Interestingly, The Body Shop was the star performer for the period, with sales up 12.7%. UPD, the pharmacy distribution business, was not far behind, at 11%, continuing to benefit from growth in supply chain contracts. On the back of this, Group turnover was up 12.2% to R9.2billion. Mr Kneale attributes this performance during a difficult period to the success of Click’s product mix and promotions, particularly over the holiday trading season.

Comment: Excellent work, with the characteristic quiet confidence of the Group and its CEO.

Moving on from last week’s less than stellar interims are Shoprite, who are quietly doing the right thing by the people of QwaQwa, home to some of the worst-affected communities in the current drought. Through Operation Hydrate, formed by various communities, NGOs, religious groups and companies, Shoprite has distributed some 50,000 litres of water to thirsty people, at Tsheseng Shopping Centre, the Elizabeth Roos Hospital and various desiccated points along the R47. An issue in the area has been the Fika Patso Dam, which used to provide 40 million litres of water a day but whose levels have now fallen below 10%.

Comment: This is not corporate social investment, which we rather suspect generally involves a return at some point. This is straight compassion, in a time of desperate need.

How are the big retailers going to keep increasingly cash-strapped punters coming through the doors? In a word, pricing. Added to a reduction in buying power brought about by poor employment prospects, trickier access to credit and rising utility costs, are the effects of a falling rand and the drought, which have hit the prices of imported goods and commodities respectively. The latter have proved a particular challenge for those businesses which cater to the lower LSMs, but shoppers still need to be brought into the stores, and all are likely to invest to the limits of their abilities in pricing, absorbing cost increases as they have proved increasingly adept at doing over the past difficult months.

Comment: Margins are getting tighter, and the stretch is going. Times are tough, even for the biggest retailers.

If you shy away from stories with ‘millennial’ in the title, perhaps this is not the story for you. Unilever, which has long been in the commendable habit of snaffling up the best and brightest of every generation on the very cusp of their careers, is making a larger than usual play for the generation everyone wants in their pockets. Unilever’s Chief Marketing Officer, Keith Weed, argues that millennials are under-represented in businesses, where their power to disrupt and innovate should be harnessed for the benefit of the profit motive and the community at large. One project attempting this is Collectively.org, founded at the World Trade Forum in Davos a couple years back, and supported by such sizeable outfits as Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, BT and Unilever itself. Apparently, millennials are mustard for the power of the collective, 82% of them believing that if people work together, their unified voice is stronger.

Comment: “Millennials”. Got it.

Rumblings and stirrings among the minority shareholders at the Sovereign Foods shareholders’ meeting last week. The meeting had been convened to approve an empowerment scheme linked to an executive management equity buy-in. The punters in question were somewhat exercised at the hefty bonuses voted to executives and management last year despite a lacklustre trading performance. They were defeated by the majority shareholders, by a narrow margin, but announced their intention to exercise their rights of appraisal. This rather complex protective mechanism allows for shareholders to sell their stock back to the business at a fair price should they not approve of a tabled motion. At least we think that’s how it goes. Leading the charge was SA’s leading activist shareholder and professional royal pain, Theo Botha.

Comment: A proud tradition, shareholder activism, although larger investors and execs might disagree.

Good news at last, although it is just the teeniest bit retrospective. Retail trade sales for the month of November were up 3.9% year on year, and 0.5% up from October’s growth. “Other” retailers were up 7%, the clothing industry was up 5.8% and pharmacies up 5.6%. Month on month, total sales grew 2.5%, the biggest jump since June 2012. And if it’s more perspective you’d like, growth in sales has averaged 4.97% year on year from 2003 to 2015, with an all-time high of 15.50% in September 2006 and a record low of -6.20% in April 2009.

Comment: It should be easy for us to figure out into which category the consumer goods retailers fit. But it is not. Time for StatsSA to reclassify, surely.

How many Choppies do you think there are in downtown Bulawayo, go on, take a guess. Aaaahnnnngh! Wrong! Not even close! There are five, and this time next month, with the injection of a bit of elbow grease and $200k there will be six, bringing to 30 the number of Choppieses in Zim. Nervous, you big South African outfits struggling for a toehold in the breadbasketcase of Africa? Perhaps it’s time to be.