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In a time of crisis, disinformation spreads faster than a pathogen, and it’s not surprising that we sometimes get things wrong. The question is, how quickly can we get back on track? SPAR shows how. After putting up posters in some stores suggesting that domestic animals could spread the COVID-19 virus, SPAR was sharply corrected by the NSPCA, apologised unreservedly, educated shoppers with correct information almost immediately, and made a handsome donation to the NSPCA. Massmart have announced price freezes in all of its Makro, Cambridge Food, Game and cash & carry stores for the duration of the 21-day nationwide lockdown in all categories bar fresh, where prices fluctuate daily – a big relief, no doubt, to its many shoppers at the tight end of the economic spectrum. Pick n Pay are introducing drive-through shopping at some stores, complete with sanitised card machines for payment. And Shoprite have announced a once off R102m appreciation bonus for its shop floor and DC employees to thank them for their efforts in keeping the nation fed and healthy during the pandemic

Comment: Some sterling work, in all areas from comms to customer care to the supply chain.

Look, we do have other things going on right now, but we’re still saddened by the downsizing of Choppies and the implications for its staff around the region. All is not lost however. Choppies shut all its stores in Mozambique and Tanzania in late 2019, and scaled back in Kenya, leaving only two stores open, which it will shortly be selling. Here in the Beloved Country, the Competition Commission has given clearance for the acquisition of Choppies’ local properties by Kind Investments. Back in Botswana, in the meantime, the business is jacking up its corporate governance in preparation for listing once more on both the Gaborone and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. The business has been recapitalised with a 100 million Pula loan from its founders Ram Ottopathu and Farouk Ismail, and 50 million from ongoing operations. They’ve also appointed an as yet nameless new deputy CEO with over 25 years of grocery retail experience in Southern Africa, and a similarly nameless new CFO.

Comment: The comeback of Choppies, if viable, will be interesting to watch.

One of the larger conundra of this brave new world of online retail is how do we deliver to poorer communities? If you’re Shoprite, you don’t mess around with cell phones and delivery trucks (although you also do that) – you just bring them the entire shop. In the form of the extra-long Usave container store, spotted last week at Ocean View near Fish Hoek, as part of Shoprite’s outreach to communities in this time of corona, helping them observe the lockdown and practice social distancing while purchasing their necessities and little luxuries. Usave, you will recall, is Shoprite’s smaller format, smaller range, smaller budget offering, which offers an even-tighter range under its eKasi banner. “Thank you Shoprite, you have the correct plan and ideas but most of all the passion,” said a happy punter on social media last week.

Comment: As we’ve often remarked, Shoprite has a gift for combining the practical dictates of commerce while making a genuine connection with the communities it serves.

In the US, Walmart has been in the news for its contribution – inadvertent or otherwise – to the opioid epidemic. Turns out that pill mills – unscrupulous doctors over-prescribing certain popular painkillers – were sending their patients to fill these prescriptions in large volumes at various Walmarts around the country. Local Walmart pharmacists flagged these transactions to Head Office, who, it is alleged, directed that no blanket ban could be placed on any one prescribing doctor, and that each prescription had to be decided on its merits. Enter the DEA, who wished to investigate further, and Trump’s Department of Justice, who said there was nothing to see here, move along. In the UK, in the meantime, some of the major retailers – including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Iceland – are giving priority (or asking their shoppers to give priority) to the elderly or vulnerable when it comes to the allocation of delivery slots for online orders, while simultaneously attempting to increase capacity.

Comment: The ability of retailers to both innovate and do the right thing is turning out to be a high point of the corona pandemic.

In the UK, Coca-Cola GB has joined a number of other manufacturers in announcing that it will be suspending all marketing activity in response to the economic conditions unrolling as the corona pandemic takes hold – very bad news for advertising businesses like Ogilvy and McCann and the flotilla of smaller agencies that attend to their every outreach need. Unilever globally has announced €500m of cash flow relief through early payment to small and medium-sized suppliers, and extended lines of credit to its small-scale retail customers, while protecting the pay of staff and contractors alike for three months. And Nestlé – perhaps a little closer than other suppliers to the cutting edge – has announced a raft of measures, including the donation of food, medical nutrition products and bottled water to those most affected, partnering with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to bring its resources and logistics capacity to bear where needed.

Comment: Advertising, of course, is one of those secondary industries which will be cruelly hit by this new reality. Although timely and accurate communications are hardly a luxury at a time like this.

Distell, creator of Amarula and Nederburg, inter alia, is simplifying its business and selling off some of its underperforming wine farms after a rough six months in which heavily discounted beer took a slug out of sales, to the tune of -7% for a final figure of R3.7bn. Back in the ’17 they sold La Bonheur and Stellenzicht; next up for your consideration are Alto and Plaisir de Merle, along with their associated brands and trademarks, and the contents of their cellars. They will also be reintegrating Libertas Vineyards and Estates back into the business, unbundled some time back to focus on the exports of premium wines. In other Distell news, the business will give some of its production over to hand sanitisers and other hygienic products, which it will supply free to communities in need across South Africa.

Comment: A good time for belt tightening. Although as Distell demonstrate, this may be accompanied by acts of goodwill.

So like Standard and Poor’s and Fitch before them, Moody’s have after much pencil sucking and rueful scribbling on small bits of paper gone and downgraded our investment status to junk, predictably, of course, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The rand promptly fled south, and is now running at around 18 to the dollar. This rand weakness, says our friend Adrian Saville of Cannon Asset Managers, is likely to work its way into inflation, which should start ticking up in a couple of months. What next? Provided we implement the policies now in place to reduce unemployment, root out corruption, realign the budget from current to capital spending, fix the SOEs and reduce inequality, we’ll be good to go. But that is going to take a long while, particularly as it seems “plausible” that GDP could shrink by as much as 2% or even 3% this year.

Comment: This is not a time for sunny platitudes about the only way being up. But reality can shine a light on character, and we know we have that.