Last year, those harassed parents among us will shudder to recall, Pick n Pay set the world of shopping with kids ablaze with the Stikeez craze.  But, as ever not willing to be outdone, Checkers have launched their own tot-tempting treasures (and as it turns out grown-up tempting treasures), in the form of Checkers Little Shop – essentially, little toy groceries that you will get given free if spend enough wedge on the real thing. While perhaps based loosely on the Shopkins brand in the US, Little Shop is way cooler – they’re based on SA’s most beloved grocery brands.

Comment: We’ve been accused of a certain jaded cynicism when it comes to marketing ploys, but this one is an absolute scorcher. To quote one happy Twitter Mom: “@CheckersSA is it wrong that I am more excited than the kids about the Little Shop Mini groceries.”

In the grand old tradition of finding your cosmic soulmate and then beating them into a shape more suited to taking out the trash and putting three square meals on the table every day, Greenpeace have literally proposed to Pick n Pay, while suggesting, more sooner than is usual, that they mend their fossil-fuel guzzling ways. Greenpeace aver that Pick n Pay has the highest rate of electricity consumption in the formal retail sector, and in its flashy new campaign, delivered a solar ring to Pick n Pay Head Office recently, together with a letter to CEO Richard Brasher suggesting that the group accelerate its move to renewables.  For its part, The Big Blue has renewed its commitment to ongoing discussions with Greenpeace.

Comment: This new approach by Greenpeace is a refreshing departure from the self-righteousness of the past, and Pick n Pay seems to have responded in a similar spirit.

Having led – by a matter of decades rather than years – in the area of shopper loyalty, Clicks was surprisingly tardy in taking its retail offering online. Now, however, after 18 months of intensive research, they’ve upped and opened an online store, with over 14,000 products available online. Being Clicks, they’ve supplemented this with a “health hub”, containing extensive info about vitamins and supplements and how they should be used, and medical conditions and medicines, all endorsed by both a doctor and a pharmacist, and regularly updated. While the retail offering is new, Clicks are hardly digital neophytes – they have over 500,000 friends on Facebook, and 92,500 followers on something called Twitter, which is apparently all the rage with the young folk.

Comment: Welcome aboard, Cap’n Kneale Sir. Proud to have you join us.

You will recall that there have been recent shenanigans about the hostile and very much potential acquisition of Sovereign Foods by rival Country Bird. As we’ve admitted before, this is arcane stuff of which we have a sketchy understanding, but reading between the lines it seems as if Sovereign Foods hopes that majority shareholder Kevin James will put in a punt for the rest of the business and see off the challenge by Country Bird. This after a failed attempt to put a structure in place, consisting of management and BEE partners, which would buy a controlling 27% stake in the business. A new version of this deal may go though, apparently, and that would mean bye-bye Mr. James, cheerio Sovereign Foods, and a drop in the share price.

Comment: Got it? Us, as previously mentioned, neither.

Cereal maker (and latterly hedge fund owner) Kellogg’s has gone into a cool new industry: hospitality, opening its first bricks and mortar outlet, Kellogg’s NYC, on Broadway, where punters can craft their own breakfast bowl of such ingredients as almond butter, green tea powder and pistachios, and which Kellogg’s leadership believe offers nothing less than “a powerful way to re-imagine a bowl of cereal.” Which is apparently just the ticket in these hard days of declining brekkie sales.