After grim tidings in trading updates from Woolies and Massmart last week, you were looking forward to Shoprite’s, weren’t you? Us too. However, at first glance, it was a source of some concern rather than the sheer delight we have become so accustomed to from The Big Red One: sales for the full year will be up around 10%, or 6.9% on a like-store basis, compared with a more buoyant 14% in Shoprite’s first half – confirmation, if any were needed, that this great sector we call home is truly up against it. It, being the recessionary conditions which currently prevail. Elsewhere in Africa, things were only moderately better, with sales growing 13.5% as currencies fluctuate and commodity prices continue soft. What’s the plan there Shoprite? They’re continuing their push into Woolies and Pick n Pay territory, gleaning what still might be had from the upper end of the market with Checkers, while continuing to provide value at the embattled mid-to-lower levels through Shoprite and Usave, alongside the full-steam-ahead focus on growth beyond our borders into Africa. We await their official full-year results with bated breath.

Comment: Shoprite are renowned for stepping up to any challenge. We have no doubt they are cracking open their war chest as we speak.

Pick n Pay’s remuneration committee has taken the bold and refreshing step of penalising top management for poor turnover growth and, we quote, “failure to meet working capital targets”. So, taking things from the top, CEO Richard Brasher received just R10million for his efforts this year, with no bonus, while last year, his short-term annual bonus of R15million took his take-home up to R24.4million. However, the committee decided to award discretionary bonuses to key players at lower management levels, to reward them for progress delivered in tricky trading conditions. The Big Blue has recorded a decline in sales volumes for two years in a row, and failed to meet the stretch target of 20-25% of profit before tax and exceptional items. 

Comment: From the analysts’ gallery, our Uncle Sydney comments that Pick n Pay may have “reset the norm” for incentive policies in our historically more generous sector.

In the past we have waxed perhaps a little too enthusiastic about the rise of Choppies from a large local super on the dusty streets of Gaborone to a regional power of retail. And indeed, the business has made some impressive gains, opening shop not only here but also in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania for a total of 202 last time we counted, planting DCs in the North West, listing on the JSE and generally harbouring pretensions of becoming the Seventh Retailer of which prophets have sung. However, while the business is doing relatively well in its home market of Botswana it has struggled to find a compelling model here in the Beloved Country and this is reflected in the share price, which plummeted 51% in 2016 and a further 7% this year. Analysts are fairly buoyant about its prospects back home as commodity prices firm and rainfall increases, but don’t like the political uncertainty in places like Zimbabwe and, erm, South Africa. 

Comment: Rome was not built in a day, nor Shoprite in a night. Hang in there, little guy.

The South African Liquor Brand Owners Association has taken aim at changes to the draft Liquor Amendment Bill which they say pays little attention to the socioeconomic consequences of any job losses the Bill might cause if it passes into legislation. The Bill, you will recall, proposes major restrictions on advertising of alcoholic beverages, including an outright ban in newspapers; prohibits trading licences for alcohol outlets within a 500m radius of churches and schools; increases the legal drinking age from 18 to 21 years; and proposes to hold brand owners legally liable for damage that may be caused by consumption of alcohol. This, says the industry, will cause downstream losses of around R2.4billion, with TV (R1.9billion) and print (R260million) being particularly hard hit. 

Comment: Tricky. But a similar ban in tobacco has led to an undeniable public health benefit, and an explosion of diversification and creativity in that industry.

Meanwhile, in the picturesquely-named Bong County, Liberia, Coca-Cola has embarked on a grassroots scheme to ensure that the local communities are getting enough of the right stuff to drink. And in this instance we’re not referring to the admittedly thirst-quenching and delicious brown liquid but to water. Through its Golden Triangle Partnership Fund, Coke is deploying its assets to provide sustainable access to clean drinking water, and capacity-building support to the national health system, in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis. It’s also empowering women by training them as the custodians of the 367 hand pumps it has installed in communities throughout the region, and giving support to orphans and other vulnerable children: three out of five deaths of children under five result from diseases related to water, sanitation and hygiene. 

Comment: Coke has a point: a healthy business cannot survive in an unhealthy community. But the humanitarian impulse is perhaps the more important motivation here.

Ten years ago, when first we picked up our plume and scratched out the first halting words of the first Trade Tatler, the place of big grocery anchor tenant in shopping malls was unassailable. You couldn’t open a mall without one, and the successful candidate could see off all comers with exclusivity agreements that were locked up tighter than Trump’s tax returns. All that has changed: the Tatler has burgeoned into a vast media empire, and anchor tenants, through a process of infighting between the retailers and a changing market have seen their death grip on the malls loosened. While a major supermarket is still essential in the mix, so is a big value clothing chain, like H&M or Cotton On. And healthcare retailers like Dis-Chem are also throwing their hat into the ring as a must-have destination store rather than an afterthought. All of this conspires to reduce the bargaining power of the big supers when negotiating leases. 

Comment: Interesting times. Tough for some retailers, as they see their influence waning, exciting for others.

Checkers Little Shop was awarded the Best Short-Term Loyalty Programme at the 2017 Loyalty Magazine Awards in London in June. Little Shop, you will know unless you prefer to spend your life with a head under a rock, saw the awarding of tiny groceries, from Pampers to Ouma Rusks, to shoppers spending R150 at Checkers. 

The general retailer’s index on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) has sunk 27% from its high in April 2015, with all of our majors recording recent losses on disappointing results or trading statements. All? Not Clicks and Dis-Chem, soaring to close-to-record highs and proving the “Lipstick Theory” that in hard economic times, punters, particularly those who are the natural market for cosmetics, will stock up on the little luxuries when they can’t afford the big-ticket items.