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Shoprite’s R1.36bn offer made earlier this year to purchase various Massmart assets, including 56 Cambridge and Rhino stores and 43 adjacent liquor stores, 10 wholesale cash and carries, two wholesale liquor stores, and the Massfresh and Fruitspot divisions, has received highly qualified approval from the Competition Tribunal. The Tribunal (who we cannot help but visualise as three men in togas) identified ten “highly problematic” stores, mainly under the Cambridge brand, recommending that these stores be divested by Massmart to suitable purchasers not related to Shoprite, which must be small or medium enterprises or historically disadvantaged individuals, as well as being financially able and technically qualified to run them. Shoprite must also, thundered the Tribunes, ensure that no jobs are lost due to the merger, and establish an employee share scheme. Some of the Cambridges have already been rebranded, and renovations are underway.

Comment: One of the bigger retail mergers for some time. It’s no wonder the competition authorities got so involved.

SPAR Chair Graham O’Connor has stepped aside after recent suggestions in the media that he is too close to the day-to-day functioning of the business to properly fulfil his role. “Mr Graham O’Connor ... believes that it is in the best interests of the company to step aside from his role as chairperson of the board in order to allow the board to focus on the current allegations facing the company,” SPAR says, referring to other governance questions reported upon here and elsewhere. He is succeeded for the moment by Andrew Waller, a lead independent director. A slightly different type of retailer, Spur is among the businesses concerned about a decline in December revenues along the KZN coast, where a sewage crisis has closed many beaches and threatens to put a real blight on the usually busy holiday season. About 18% of Spur’s 550 restaurants are in KZN. Next, Woolies is expanding its Dash online delivery service to more coastal locations, including Langebaan, Simon’s Town, Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Jeffreys Bay, Margate and Richards Bay, just in time for the hols. Finally, welcome to SA’s newest retailing power, the Circle K convenience brand from Canada, which has just opened its first store at the Puma Energy filling station opposite The Wilds Shopping Centre in Tshwane.

Comment: People want to do business in this beautiful country of ours. Let’s give them some better reasons to do so.

In the UK, major retailers are tailoring their Christmas TV ads to reflect the reduced circumstances of shoppers in a year that has seen an energy crunch, three prime ministers, rising inflation, and the ongoing fallout of Brexit. Tesco’s Christmas Party ad promises to deliver an affordable and joyful festive season. “The only thing we’ll cut are prices,” it says. Lidl’s features a common teddy bear that achieves fame as the face of the supermarket’s advertising campaign, with the payoff “Big on quality, Lidl on price”. Don’t we all deserve a little fame this Christmas? Finally, in a genuine tearjerker, John Lewis forgoes all commercialism in the story of a middle-aged man who teaches himself (the hard way) how to skateboard in preparation for becoming the foster father of a young skateboarder. Marks & Spencer were off the mark with an ad depicting a groaning table and no mention at all of prices, while Sainsbury’s went for an even more tone deaf Bridgerton theme.

Comment: Powerful lessons for all brands seeking genuine connection with their customers.

Moving abroad, British American Tobacco has issued a trading update assuring punters of a pleasing full-year performance, driven mainly by sales of tobacco heating products (THP), vapes, and modern oral products in its lucrative New Categories segment. Finally, Oceana has reported an increase in revenue of +12% to R8.1bn for the year through September, with HEPS up an even more pleasing +17%, on the back of strong demand and price improvements across most product lines, notably fishmeal and fish oil, and a recovery of canned goods with the opening up of supply lines in the latter half of the year. Operating profit was up +11% to R1.25bn.

Comment: Even in these straitened times, there is a profit to be made by those businesses that look to value and efficiencies in their day-to-day operations.

For those of us fortunate enough to have salaries this holiday season, the StatsSA Quarterly Labour Force Survey makes for sobering reading. There are some spots of light: there were 269,000 fewer people unemployed in Q3 compared with Q2, and 204,000 more employed people. Unemployment ticked down by one percentage point to 32.9%. But the underlying numbers are still terrible: 32.9% is unsustainable, and the more realistic expanded rate, which takes into account people who have given up looking, is at a tenaciously high 43.1%. The number of unemployed people has risen dramatically from 4.9 million in the Q3 of 2012 to 7.7 million this year, with young people from 15-24 years of age accounting for a disproportionately high number of these. The formal sector still accounts for 68.7% of all jobs.

Comment: These numbers put a human face onto the difficulties facing our economy and indeed our country and should be pasted on the boardroom wall of every business and government department in South Africa.