Some of the numbers have started to come in from the looting of stores in KZN and Gauteng, and while incomplete (and changing constantly), they make for sobering reading:
Clicks: 54 stores looted and vandalised, at least 7 reopened. Clicks and UPD DCs in KZN looted and damaged.
Massmart: 41 Game, Makro and Builders stores looted, two DCs destroyed. R13m committed to aid recovery efforts in KZN.
Pick n Pay: 136 food, grocery, clothing and building stores and 76 liquor stores looted or burned, two DCs in KZN severely damaged.
Shoprite: 119 stores – 69 Shoprite, 44 Usave, 5 Checkers and 1 Checkers Hyper – severely impacted by looting or fire damage. 54 LiquorShops and 35 furniture stores impacted. Freshmark DC in Durban looted, but operations fully restored. 16 OK franchise stores damaged.
SPAR: 184 stores including 62 TOPS and 31 Build its looted and damaged, 38 re-opened. KZN DC returned to full service.
Woolworths: 9 KZN stores and 2 Gauteng stores looted and severely damaged. Maxmead DC in Durban looted but not severely damaged.

Comment: Of perhaps equal significance to the devastation suffered by these businesses is the remarkable speed at which they have re-opened their stores and DCs and resumed service to their shoppers.

A trading statement from the Dapper One covering the 52 weeks through June, during which period sales grew by +9.7% YoY, and by +5.9% in constant currency terms. The big performer was online food sales, which grew by +117.9%, contributing 2.3% to South African food sales, with fashion beauty and home sales growing +114.4% online, although in-store sales were generally muted in straitened economic times and as the business strove to streamline private label offerings and rationalise unproductive space. Down Under, David Jones and Country Road also grew online sales, although by significantly smaller rates. 11 Woolies stores were looted and severely damaged during the recent unrest, and while some damage was sustained at the Maxmead DC in KZN, it has resumed operations. The business warned that the events of two weeks ago and the already depressed retail environment will continue to impact the bottom line.

Comment: Good online numbers, although the base for growth remains low.

Doing the right thing for dear old Mother Earth this week is Checkers, who has let it be known that it will be stocking Farmer Angus grass-fed beef burger patties in all its stores nationwide. The patties in question are made from beef raised by Angus McIntosh on the Spier Wine Farm in Stellies, where rotational grazing is practiced to increase the carbon in the soil, helping it retain water and making the farm more resilient against drought while increasing the nutrients necessary for healthy plant life. And not incidentally, it enables Farmer Angus himself and his workforce to pocket cash from the sale of carbon credits. For the consumer, it means delicious beef, naturally raised, which comes in at less per kilo than the stuff that comes from cattle raised on grain in the massive feedlots which produce 99% of South Africa’s beef.

Comment: Excellent work from Farmer Angus and indeed from Checkers, fast establishing itself as a destination for responsibly produced and healthy foods.

In good news for drug dealers, arms merchants and money launderers, Amazon has advertised a job vacancy for a Digital Currency Product Lead, suggesting that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which are mined using an energy-intensive and environmentally destructive process and have no inherent value, might soon be accepted as legal tender by the online and grocery giant. In the US, Walmart is extending its reach into healthcare, complementing its bricks and mortar offering in primary care, labs, X-ray and EKG, counselling, dental, optical, hearing, community health and health insurance education and enrolment, as well as traditional pharmacy, with a new drive into telemedicine. You may recall that the Big Feller acquired unpronounceable telehealth provider MeMD back in May. As it stands, Walmart has over 45,000 stores in the US, representing enormous potential to overturn that country’s brutal healthcare system through the provision of affordable medicine and services.

Comment: Retailers are moving far beyond their traditional mandate of providing goods for cash, and both at home and abroad are fast becoming part of a country’s essential infrastructure.

As went chicken, so go chips: McCain has reported that damp, grey potato chips from the sodden fields of Belgium and the Netherlands are now 30% cheaper than our own superior, crisp, golden, sun-kissed beauties because of the termination of long-standing anti-dumping duties of between 6% and 30% on imported chips. This, says McCain, will see local producers losing around 10% of market share to foreign businesses with no understanding of how South Africans prefer their fries. The irritating thing is that this was the avoidable result of a blunder by the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac) which, by its own admission, failed to complete its investigation into a sunset review application by local producers in the prescribed time, despite finding that the expiry of the duties would “likely lead” to dumping and material injury to local producers.

Comment: An own goal our country cannot afford, and our local producers do not deserve.

In these troubled times of social unrest and climate change, a product recall for faulty packaging seems almost quaint. But it can’t have seemed that way for Tiger Brands, which last week recalled 20 million units of KOO and Hugo’s canned vegetable products after 18 cans were discovered with a deficient side-seam at one of Tiger Brand’s facilities in May. The recall affects 9% of Tiger’s annual production with an estimated final value of up to R650m. The defect creates the risk not only of leaking cans but of microbial contamination which could cause illness. The cans were provided to Tiger Brands by a supplier and were recalled after 287,040 cans were tested and two found to be leaking. The business is fortunately covered for such eventuality by insurance.

Comment: What have we learned? The kind of stuff our dad taught us, we suppose: accidents happen, always err on the side of caution, fess up quickly, and make sure you have insurance.

On Sunday, we are relieved to note, President Ramaphosa announced that the Government would be resuming payment of the R350 income grant to the country’s poorest citizens between the ages of 18 and 59. The grant would also be made available once again to unemployed caregivers, who had previously received it as a top-up to their child support grants. This means that around 9.5 million people will receive the payment – the six million unemployed who signed up for it initially, plus 3.5 million caregivers. The payments should be covered by a slight increase in the collection of revenues, driven by an uptick in commodity prices. It is sorely needed: of the 2.2 million jobs lost in the second quarter of last year, we’ve managed to recover less than one million. In the meantime, several civil society organisations have called upon the government to provide a Basic Income grant of R1,268 that will assist over 13 million South African living under the poverty line.

Comment: As the recent unrest has shown, solutions such as these have become a question of urgent national necessity.