What exactly is ShopriteX? And what is it cooking up in its thrillingly minimalist offices above the new Hyper in Brackenfell? “The division’s 250-strong team, including data science, e-commerce and personalisation experts, is working side by side with Shoprite’s IT team, to create and implement new innovations,” says Shoprite. An incubator then, which has already delivered the Xtra Savings rewards programme and Checkers Sixty60, and which is currently beavering away in full mad scientist mode at Checkers Rush, an automated, cashless “no queues, no checkout, no waiting” concept store, currently housed at ShopriteX where it serves staff whose purchases are observed and recorded by a battery of AI-driven cameras, and whose cards are charged automatically on exit. “Through a culture of innovation and startup-like pace, our teams are making grocery shopping more personalised for customers while removing friction from the retail experience,” says chief of strategy and innovation Neil Schreuder.

Comment: This explains a lot about the scale and pace of Shoprite’s innovations in recent years. Every business – no matter its size – should have a lab like this. And a champion like Schreuder in the driver’s seat.

A trading update from Shoprite for the 53 weeks through July 4, with sales up +8.1% to R168bn, and the core Supermarkets business back here in the Beloved C., accounting for more than three-quarters of continuing revenue, growing +9.3%. Reflecting the enthusiastically if chaotically applied prohibition, sales form the stand-alone LiquorShops were up just +4.4%, with a -21.8% decline in first half sales, and growth of +53.6% in the second, with a total of 144 days of closures for the year. Furniture was a big winner for the Group, although it was disproportionately hit in the looting – sales at OK Furniture and House & Home were up almost +25% for the period, to R6.8bn. And in what this year is sadly likely to become a standard of results reporting, 119 stores of Shoprite’s total of 1,189 supermarkets trading under the Shoprite, Usave, Checkers and Checkers Hyper banners, were severely affected by looting and fire damage, as were 35 furniture stores, and 54 LiquorShops. The really big news, though, is that Shoprite will be buying lock, stock and barrel all of Massmart’s non-core food businesses – see the Massmart story down below.

Comment: Very solid results in what we can all agree has been one heck of a year.

So as we were saying, in significant news for all parties, Shoprite has offered to purchase a number of Massmart’s non-core food assets for the tidy if not princely sum of R1.36bn. The businesses in question – as you will probably recall – are Cambridge Food, Rhino, Massfresh and 12 Cash & Carry stores. The sale is of course subject to the nod of the competition authorities, which should conclude their deliberations by March 2022. “The sale marks another step in the Group’s portfolio optimisation process and will, amongst other benefits, free up management time to enable increased focus on leveraging Massmart’s core merchandise and market strengths,” says CEO Mitch Slape. Massmart will use the cash to settle some bills, to advance its e-commerce projects, and to invest in some focus areas for the business, such as DIY, liquor, and wholesale food.

Comment: A leaner, more focused Massmart is good for its investors both here and abroad, good for suppliers who can target their offering more effectively, and good for South Africa’s consumers. Look out for more detail in the Group’s half year results next week.

In the US, Amazon has already opened a bunch of small stores selling a range of books, gewgaws and gadgets which seem supernaturally tailored to meet your exact needs, whoever you are. It has begun the rollout of its standard Amazon fresh grocery stores. And now, to sweep up whatever’s left of the market, it is rumoured to be opening a number of next-generation department stores in the manner, presumably, of rivals Walmart and Target. This as it eyes a time in the not-too-distant future when online will be saturated. Speaking of which, online grocer Ocado has reported its first sales decline, with a drop of -0.7% in the 12 weeks through August 8, as punters return to bricks and mortar. Walmart, in the meantime, has posted stronger-than-expected Q2 numbers, with sales growing +5.2% even as COVID-19’s Delta variant rages through the heartland, and despite a slowing in the growth of online. Tesco, in the meantime, left thousands of online shoppers frustrated last week after the app and website crashed.

Comment: Online is clearly an important part of a healthy mix of channels. But it is by no means the whole story – ask anyone.

Food giant Nestlé has decided to cancel an online talk for stokvels on infant and child nutrition after health experts argued that such an event would contravene national regulations against advertising foods for infants and toddlers. “We cancelled the event because of the unfortunate perception by various stakeholders that the event is not supportive of exclusive breastfeeding, and that it sought to undermine the public health messages that promote exclusive breastfeeding of infants below the age of six months,” Nestlé’s corporate communications and public affairs director Saint-Francis Tohlang. “We continue supporting exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, followed by the introduction of adequate nutritious complementary foods, along with sustained breastfeeding, up to two years of age and beyond.” Several authorities – from government departments to NGOs to academics – have taken the position that any advertising of milk substitutes undermines the national effort to promote exclusive breastfeeding.

Comment: A tricky issue for a business like Nestlé to navigate – particularly in a media climate where the advertising of alcohol, while carrying health warnings, is permitted.

Welcome to South Africa, Just Egg Folded, the toaster friendly version of Just Egg, developed by San Francisco outfit Eat Just and brought to these shores in partnership with burgeoning plant-based giant, Johannesburg’s very own Infinite Foods. The mung bean-based and – we cannot emphasize this enough, toaster-friendly – egg substitute will be available from all Wellness Warehouse retailers nationwide, even as restaurants such as Lexi’s, Jackson’s, and Great Cape Deli place it front and centre on the menu. And you’ll also be able to order it off the Infinite Foods website. “Eat Just is an innovative company on the forefront of food technology, making them an amazing partner to help Infinite Foods address the food security, health, and sustainability issues we face in Africa,” says Michelle Adelman, Infinite Foods Founder and CEO.

Comment: Imagine being there at the Birth of Beef, the Dawn of Dairy, or the Creation of Chicken. And then, one day perhaps, being able to buy shares in it. We are at such a moment with toaster-friendly egg substitutes.

The numbers are in from StatsSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and they make for lamentable reading. The number of employed persons decreased by 54,000 in the second quarter, to 14.9 million, and the ranks of the unemployed swelled by 584,000 to 7.8 million compared to the first quarter. The number of discouraged work-seekers grew +5.9% to 186,000, although there was, for other reasons, a net reduction of 386,000 in the not economically active population. The official unemployment rate increased by 1,8 percentage points to 34.4%, the highest since the survey began in 2008. The unemployment rate according to the expanded definition of unemployment increased by 1.2 percentage points to 44.4%. Professional services firm PwC believes that we might expect a muted recovery in these numbers, this year, to about 32.3%.

Comment: These are just the numbers – behind which are millions of stories of desperation, shame and anxiety, lost hopes and wasted lives. It’s quite simple: until the first priority of every business and every government official is to reduce these numbers, we simply do not have a moral or indeed a viable economy – as recent events have shown.