To Botswana, then, where Shoprite have opened their first in-country DC, buoyed no doubt by the well-published travails of Choppies, and with an eye for the main chance. Located in the industrial environs of Taung, Gaborone, the 3,700m2 facility is state-of-the-art, a term that in 15 years we have studiously avoided using in these pages, and that first appeared in the 1910 volume “The Gas Turbine: progress in the design and construction of turbines operated by gases of combustion” by Henry Harrison Suplee of Pennsylvania. Fact. Anyway, the state-of-the-art facility in question, will be occupied mainly by Freshmark, the Shoprite Group’s fruit and vegetable procurement, buying and distribution arm, and boasts storage across multiple temperature disciplines, tropical ripening rooms and value-added packing facilities.

Comment: All of which is to say: Shoprite are betting heavily on the future, and if we were of the punting persuasion, so would we.

Walmart are proving surprisingly chatty about their plans for Massmart, having, as you know, named a “fixer” from within their own ranks, Mitch Slape, to succeed Guy Hayward as CEO. Speaking at a Deutsche Bank-sponsored global consumer conference, Richard Mayfield, CFO of Walmart International, shared some of the thinking. “I think the first job is to trade the business well, but clearly, we’ll be reviewing the portfolio of businesses and the operating model. I think there is a lot of opportunity for efficiency and cost savings.” Much work has been done in the Massmart business on these themes over the past two to three years. The savings to which Mayfield refers are related to the often overlooked goods not for resale (GNFR), which can push costs up by +25%, and include consumables such as shopping bags and till slips, equipment like fridges and services such as IT support – areas where, in other words, the economies of scale possessed by a Walmart might come in handy.

Comment: The past two to three years at Massmart have been defined by a significant amount of ‘back-end’ work, focusing on cost control, organisational re-structure, streamlining supply chain infrastructure for margin and efficiency etc. We look forward to seeing the impact of this work and new leadership on the numbers – a strong Massmart business is a strong vote for our economy and FMCG industry.

How’s Woolies doing? Let’s go to the punters, who have been buying Woolworths’ shares at a rate which has seen their value head north to the tune of +11.5% since the end of May, to around R48.90. Far from the heady days of R100 and up in 2015, but still. “The bulk of the heavy lifting has now been done,” says an insider of the untidy David Jones acquisition daaahnundah, pointing to new systems and an online platform coming on-stream, improved sales, the restoration of its Sydney flagship and the relocation of head office to the great Australian city of Melbin. But it’s not all on the Aussies: the retail index back home in the Beloved Country rose around 9% over the same period, and the all-share 7.6%, which indicates a surprising bullishness in the market and even the glimmerings of a retail recovery. In other Woolies news, they’ve won two prestigious awards – the best Sustainable Display at the annual Creative Retail Awards in London for their striking Christmas 2018 window displays and the Best Use of Social Media at the Content Council’s Pearl Impact Award.

Comment: A good week for Woolies, then, and hopefully the first of many.

It’s all Tesco this week. Under pressure from Aldi and Lidl, as we mentioned last week and probably the one before that, total sales for their first quarter dropped -0.4% YoY, partially as a result of the decision to close the non-food division Tesco Direct last year. To be fair, like store sales, which were up +0.4%, have risen every quarter for the past fourteen, and Tesco insist they’re beating their rivals in a subdued retail market. In news of a stalled apocalypse, Tesco have also flogged all the canned and packed food it had stockpiled against an early Brexit. They are still apparently keeping supplies of sharpened sticks handy behind the registers. And in sunnier stuff altogether, they’re upping the wages of their store and warehouse workers by a princely +10.45% (tugs forelock), although this will be offset by the loss of the annual bonus. (burn the castle!)

Comment: Every Tesco story we read could share a headline with the rest: “Juggernaut staggers on” or words to that effect.

British American Tobacco have let it be known that cigarette sales aren’t what they used to be back when your mum smoked 20 Cameo a day, and have in fact declined globally for the full year, to the tune of -3.5%. But look on the bright side! Their new category brands – including vaping, snuff, oral nicotine and e-cigarettes – are set to shoot the lights out, growing somewhere between +30 and +50%. This, BAT have fairly concluded, means they should invest in growing those categories, which they intend to do strategically, putting their money into fewer, higher-performing products and brands. “We are creating a stronger, simpler business and driving a step-change in new categories,” says laddishly-monikered CEO Jack Bowles, “built on the foundation of a strong combustible business.”

Comment: After the ice melts or the bombs go off, there will still be cockroaches. And they will be smoking cigarettes.

Picking the brains of South Africa’s best this week (hint: that’s you) are Nestlé, who have launched an R&D challenge seeking novel solutions across four areas – environment- friendly packaging solutions, sustainable cocoa plantlets, affordable nutrition and new routes to market. The idea is to work collaboratively with start-ups and universities to identify sustainable and scalable science and technology solutions that will help accelerate the development of products that meet local consumer needs, and, of course, to make a buck, what’s wrong with that? Joining us in the challenge are the worthy citizens of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, all full of their own innovations from the world’s most creative continent.

Comment: This is just brilliant. We can’t wait to see what emerges.

Joining their cousins in Milwaukee and Manchester, and probably Mumbai, are the embattled denizens of South Africa’s struggling middle class, who have to work three jobs just to keep afloat. In the last couple of years, their take home pay has risen just R6 a month, during which time we know what has happened to their expenses. This has led people to yes, work a lot harder than is good for them, but also downgrade things like their cars, homes and their children’s education. They’re also turning to credit cards and unsecured lending, and if the fundi’s are to be believed, the current downturn, which saw the economy shrink -3.2% for the month of April, is likely to make itself felt in take-home pay in three months or so. On the upside, Eskom seem to pumping out the electrons at a healthier rate than they’ve managed in recent months, and we’re apparently in for a big fuel price cut in July.

Comment: The decline of the middle class, and of social mobility, are a threat to social cohesion everywhere.