When everyone else turns in disappointing trading updates, the analysts wag their fingers and wonder about the implementation of this strategy or that five-year plan, clicking their tongues and looking sideways at the CEO or the ruling family. When Shoprite does it, as they apparently did last week, they click their tongues and look sideways at the dear old SA consumer. We say “apparently”, of course, because 12.1% for the year to June is still growth, R92.7biljoens is still turnover, and like-store performance of 5.8% still beats inflation. The worry though is twofold – second-half growth came through at only 10.4% compared with 13.8% in the first half, and the analysts’ own expectations had put the final sales figure at closer to R95 big ones. Accordingly, shares across the retail sector took a beating this week.

Comment: All of this goes to confirm that the slowdown in spending by SA’s cash-strapped and credit-besieged consumers is in full swing, particularly in the middle to lower end of the market where Shoprite traditionally does so well.

Ah, Woolworths now. Woolies. Wooliekins. The Wooz. Woozaroni. El Woozamundo. Woo…where were we? Oh, yes. Sales up, wait for it, wait for it, 23% for the 53 weeks to the end of June, in the name of all that is dark and tasteful, according to the trading update. Why? you ask, although really you know. Obviously that extra week didn’t hurt. And Country Road sales grew 77.7% with the acquisition of Witchery down under. Locally, food has been a winner, growing 15.4% for the period with clothing lagging somewhat in the unseasonal warmth at 13.7%. In its drive for dominance in food at the upper end, The Dapper One has extended its ranges, expanded the number of SKUs on its shelves and in its fridges and begun to carry more branded lines, hoping with some success to upgrade its posh punters from baskets to trolleys.

Comment: Excellent stuff that well-heeled grocer.

Mr Brasher seems to be taking a firm hand at the Pick n Pay wheel, where changes both of his making (the acquisition, ahem, of Gerhard Ackermann and Gustave Möller from Shoprite) and not (the resignation of Marketing Director, Bronwen Rohland) seem to characterise the new setup. He is of the view that Pick n Pay is not in a bad way, nor does it need the turnaround some of the more excitable analysts have been howling for. He believes it is advantageously positioned in the middle of the market, where the money is, and that it has an admirable and still lively reputation for consumer championship. He is in the process of shaking up general merchandise and is taking a keener interest in marketing than his predecessors, regarding Chairman Ackerman the Elder as the best Marketing Director the business has ever had.

Comment: Interesting times are afoot chez Big Blue, and probably will be for some time.

Piecharts. Trade presenters shaped like the Taj Mahal. New sets of golf clubs for the discerning buyer. These are just some of the ways suppliers have traditionally got their product onto the shelves of the modern trade. When it comes to the Independents, not so much. The dear old BOP, a market worth a reputed R130billion, is pretty much left to pick over the leavings. Have a wobbler. Now an innovative business called tap-IT is changing all that, putting 1,000 3G-enabled tablet computers loaded with their eponymous app into the hands of Independent Retailers. The app enables manufacturers to launch new products to the trade, and enables product to be ordered from the local wholesalers. It lets manufacturers communicate and incentivise secondary displays and conduct two-way brand research. All in all it’s like a sales guy, merchie, market research lady and Taj Mahal trade presenter rolled into one attractive package, which you can also play Angry Birds on…  well, not just yet anyways.

Comment: Check it out right here. It could change the way you get into the trade.

Some fun poultry-industry facts for you: South Africa currently produces a healthy 1.6% of the global chicken volumes, compared with the US’s 19.6% and China’s 16.8%. Poultry is twice the size of beef as an industry, and 54% of all protein produced in SA has two legs and squawks. None of this can be exported, however, due to historical avian flu outbreaks in our ostrich population. And Brazil exports 2.5 times the volume of our entire production, some of which finds its way over here: of the 36kg each of us consumes per annum (yes, we do), about 6kg is imported – the equivalent, if you add it up, of the entire output of a Rainbow or an Astral, which explains why businesses like these get so exercised about imports. Each week, about 20million chickens meet their swift ends here, a number which could be increased to 24million should imports be removed from the equation.

Comment: Hard times in the industry, whose interests need to be responsibly balanced against lower prices in the fridge.

Globally, Coke’s second-quarter profits have declined to the tune of 4%, with volumes climbing only 1%, hit we are told by a slow start to the northern hemisphere summer, slowing economic growth in China, cash-strapped punters in turbulent Europe and, perhaps most worrying, changing US beverage tastes. New CEO Muhtar Kent has aggressively targeted emerging markets (Myanmar is a new addition to the brown and bubbly firmament, with $200million targeted for market development there over the next five years) and experimenting with smaller, more affordable pack sizes to counter the trend. In the US, concerns about the obesity epidemic have seen punters dropping full-calorie sodas like Coke for something a little more svelte, while New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s war on Big Gulps has also not helped.

Comment: After what, a century? of global domination, it may be time to haul out the old recipe book.

After April’s dismal showing, with growth clocking in at just 2.2%, May’s retail trade numbers as gathered by the hoary sages at StatsSA soared like the proverbial eagle at a nine-month high of 6.2%. Surprised on the upside, as we number-crunchers like to say. The big contributors were textiles, clothing, footwear and leather goods with sales up 12.9%; general dealers at 5.9% and dealers in hardware, paint and glass at 5.6%. The analysts, let us assure you, are not impressed. It won’t last, they say, not with the fuel price heading north and GDP south and the chill winds of depressed consumer sentiment blowing in over the vlakte. The economy grew at its slowest rate since the Great Decession in the first quarter, and that’s never good.

Comment: Still, eh. There still seems to be enough cash out there for cut-glass ornaments and leather underthings.

Illovo MD Graham Clark has gone all Mr Kurtz on us, resigning from the helm of the business he has steered to new heights in order to pursue “exciting opportunities in Africa.” He will be handing the reins over to Gavin Dalgleish, currently driving things along as group operations director. Someone send a steamboat up the Congo to find out what the old feller’s up to, would you?

As its $4.46billion deal with Indian drug company Cipla concludes, Cipla Medpro has delisted its share from the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), leaving things a bit echo-y for the remaining three drug businesses there: Aspen Pharmacare, Adcock Ingram and Litha Healthcare, and a bit thin for punters eager to share in the largesse they’ve come to expect from Big Pharma over the years.