What can this mean? Pick n Pay is cutting in half the generosity of its vaunted Smart Shopper programme, meaning that where once you could spend R100 and get a ront back, you now have to spend R200. Put another way, this halves the cashback rate to customers from 1% to 0.5%. According to Pick n Pay, however, this is not the case at all: the change is aimed at making the programme “more rewarding and more personal” by giving you “personal discounts every week, based on… actual shopping habits.” Smart Shopper is widely surveyed as the most popular rewards programme in the country – or has been up to now, but word in the street is that while it has done good things for Pick n Pay’s sales, it hasn’t performed as well at the bottom line, skimming those already razor-thin margins to an unsustainable degree.

Comment: While shoppers, smart or otherwise, might not be happy with the change, investors probably will.

And here’s a grab bag of Woolworths stories for you, which together might form a compelling overarching narrative as we in the rands-per-word industry like to say. First up, Woolies have a new takeaway outlet in – where else – Longmarket St., Cape Town, which rejoices under the snappy yet parochial name of Now Now. And what’s even more edgy is that you can place your order via the Now Now app, then pick it up. Next, Woolies has become the first major international retailer to join the EP 100 campaign, by which it promises to double its energy efficiency by 2020 as its contribution towards a net-zero-emissions economy. And finally, Woolworths SA MD Zyda Rylands has received the first-ever World Retail Congress Woman of the Year Award "in recognition of her inspirational work‚ both as an international leader‚ philanthropist and for her outstanding commercial success".

Comment: Great stuff all round after some iffy weeks for the Dapper One. Nice.

Some random burblings from Massmart, in the absence of anything more earthshatteringly newsworthy. You will remember that after Minister Gordhan’s Last Budget, a presentation more Old Testament than televangelist if you get our meaning, Massmart surprised all and sundry with the announcement that they had upped sales to the tune of 15.5%. “The team has been focused on the basics of retail, looking after customers and making sure we offer value for money,” says Massmart chair Kuseni Dlamini. The basics include reducing store rental fees, slashing travel costs and closing underperforming sites, bringing supply costs under tighter control, boosting the food business with new product lines and getting feet through the door with favourable pricing. All of this from a lengthy interview with Mr. D, who points to Africa as being key to the growth of the business, with Massbuild the vehicle of choice on a rapidly-urbanising continent.

Comment: After the Wakro deal, people expected fireworks from the Men in Black. What they got instead was something with less fizz and bang, but perhaps with greater longevity.

“Who?” you ask, more than a little mischievously, and in the local market at least you would not be far wrong. Kraft Heinz might bestride the globe like a colossus, but here in the beloved country it’s a scrappy outsider, taking on giants like Tiger Brand’s All Gold with its iconic Heinz tomato sauce brand but still coming a creditable second. Um, third, actually, if you take Pioneer’s Wellington brand into account, which we are. Otherwise, the business has a respectable little portfolio on this great continent we call home, including Cadbury chocolate, Jacobs coffee, Oreo biscuits, Oscar Mayer cold meats, Philadelphia cream cheese, Bournvita crackers and Kraft mayonnaise and barbecue sauce. According to Kraft Heinz, the business is recording double-digit growth in SA, but this cannot be corroborated as it is still privately owned by the former family of Maris Stella old girl and John Kerry spouse, Theresa Heinz Kerry.

Comment: A fact which lacks any relevance whatsoever.

This you may not know, although it figures: McCain Foods of chips and frozen veg fame source 95% of their produce right here at home – a problem, when up to 30% of production was lost to the drought. In the case of carrots and green beans, for example yields were 20% and 15% down, respectively. And of the potatoes that remained, many were unsuitable for use as chips due to problems like malformation and high sugar levels because of under-irrigation. All this has led to skyrocketing prices and high levels of imported veggies. So what’s a business like McCain’s to do? They struck up strategic partnerships with key customers, and negotiated the use of viable and available local produce rather than relying on imports, which has kept local farmers in business. It has cut down dramatically on its own water use, and has helped farmers with irrigation scheduling to ensure that they do the same.

Comment: Excellent forward-thinking stuff from a business which sees which way the wind blows, and knows that it will not always carry rain.

So we’ve joined that other illustrious club of which Brazil and Russia are members: former economic powerhouses with junk investment status. This is of course a shame and a humiliation and bad in the medium term for our prospects and those of our people. And this is not a mere testing of the waters either: it generally takes around seven years for a country to regain its former status. However, not all economists are running around with their hair on fire, which makes a nice change. Some point to our hardly-apocalyptic deficit, and our relatively modest borrowings. The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA) is less sanguine, pointing out that a weaker rand will lead inevitably to higher prices and to a more stressed consumer.

Comment: At best, the downgrades are a strident and obvious wake-up call we did not need. At worst – well, we’ll see.

Chicken producer Astral is warning of a 60% drop in headline earnings per share (HEPS) (the one true measure of profitability) in the face of weakened consumer spending, lower kilograms sold because of new brining regulations, high maize meal prices and high levels of imported poultry. Tough times down at the sheds, but we knew that.

This week brings with it the revelation that pretty much none of the plastic bags hawked by our retailers as recyclable, are in fact recyclable, as they contain high levels of fillers such as chalk which makes them cheaper but sabotages the process. The only exception, it seems, are the Green Bags provided by Checkers – just one more reason the shekhazi is so iconic.