Shoprite released a voluntary trading update for the six months to 28 December early this week. Let’s dive straight into the nitty-gritty: 

• • Group turnover up +7.2% to R137bn. Put another way, the Group made R752m in sales every day over the six months
  • The core business, i.e. Supermarkets RSA, saw turnover grow +7.1%, and now contributes 84.3% to Group sales
  • Internal selling price inflation (i.e. the increase in prices on the shelf) for Supermarkets RSA was kept almost flat at an average of +0.7%. When compared to StatsSA’s official food inflation number of +4.7%, this is rather commendable. In fact, Shoprite Group prices declined into deflation over Nov and Dec due to aggressive promotional activity
  • Like-for-like sales (i.e. excluding new and closed stores during the period) grew just +1.9%, which tells us that the overall Group revenue growth of +7.2% (see above) was thanks to sales from new stores rather than higher prices. In a world where many retailers are seeing volume declines, that is a massive win
  • Shoprite and Usave operated with internal selling price deflation of -0.1% and -0.7% respectively, and still managed to achieve sales growth of +5.1% for the period. Checkers and Checkers Hyper were up +8.9%, and Sixty60 grew sales +34.6%
  • Adjacent businesses, i.e. Petshop Science, Uniq Clothing, Checkers Outdoor and Little Me, positively shot the lights out at +71.2% sales growth, thanks to stores opening hand over fist: Petshop Science +45 stores; Checkers Outdoor +5 stores; Uniq +5 stores. Little Me closed two stores, though, which mirrors the challenges Dis-Chem is seeing in its Baby City stores. Perhaps busy mommas and poppas just don’t have the time to visit a specialist store and would rather grab their formula and nappies online or in supermarket aisles

What does it look like when a retailer changes its business model from the traditional buying and selling of products to one where shoppers, manufacturers and financial service providers are connected in a multi-sided marketplace? Just ask Dis-Chem, whose Better Rewards platform has already saved its shoppers R350m in its first 100 days. Now, R350m is the total amount Dis-Chem shoppers saved across an entire year under the old rewards system, and if the momentum continues, it anticipates that Better Rewards could return over R1.5bn to shoppers in its first year, should its popularity and uptake continue to grow, of course. “These savings matter because they determine whether someone collects their medication, receives timely care or postpones treatment. These are daily decisions for millions of South Africans,” says Dis-Chem CEO Rui Morais, highlighting the core principle behind Better Rewards of making healthcare more affordable and sustainable by bringing together multiple pathways to value. Through Better Rewards, discounts ‘stack’ based on shoppers’ level of engagement with Dis-Chem’s various services: savings start at a flat 10% across more than 170 trusted brands for all Better Rewards members. If they add the ‘Pharmacy Boost’, i.e. by filling prescriptions or purchasing OTC products at the dispensary, they get an extra 5%. If members are Capitec cardholders, they can unlock another 5% on certain brands, and customers of Dis-Chem’s insurance products receive even further discounts, potentially unlocking up to 100% in discounts, depending on the cover chosen and the shopper’s health rating.

We may have the finest, most intuitive and intelligent tech at our very fingertips, and yet there is a quiet, stubborn pull toward what is tangible. Like diary planners that we scratch our pencils across, or a hardcopy novel with the fading scent of crisp paper. Another example is Shoprite’s Savings Stamps, into which customers are still pouring more than R120m each month and which have seen growth of 20% over the last year. What’s the appeal? It’s a trusted tool, low risk (unless you lose your stamps booklet), and users can see, touch and control it with no charges, hidden or otherwise. In-house data shows that while some customers redeem stamps regularly, most save steadily throughout the year, with redemption peaking during key shopping periods such as Black Friday, Easter, the festive season, and January’s back-to-school period. It’s a tool just waiting for manufacturers and service providers to partner with.

Next, SPAR is being taken to court  – again – by franchises owned by the Giannacopoulos Group, which is suing for damages related to the “botched implementation” of the SAP enterprise resources planning software at the KZN DC back in 2023. The claim is for at least R170m in damages due to delays that led to stock delivery interruptions and lost sales. In FY2023, the SAP disaster caused SPAR to lose R1.6bn in turnover. SPAR’s legal team is currently reviewing the papers of this latest case. But, there is no love lost between SPAR and the Giannacopoulos family, with the two parties having faced each other in 14 court cases since 2019, all of which were won by the family. The disputes centred on SPAR’s attempts to seize control of Giannacopoulos-operated SPAR outlets, credit-term alterations, allegations of misconduct, and a big damages claim related to a guild membership dispute.

In news from abroad, Albertsons has announced that it will be clamping tracking devices to its trolleys and baskets to follow the path shoppers take through its stores. The main purpose, says Albertsons, is for media and measurement, helping the company determine if shoppers who see in-store ads later purchase the advertised product. Sounds a little Big-Brotherish? You wouldn’t be alone in thinking so. But Albertsons has been quick to clarify that although connecting the trackers to loyalty data is possible, “access is not enabled” and only the shopping trolley or basket and its movement will be tracked, not the shopper. Hmmm… Meta also told us that our messages were ‘private’. We never fell for that one, TBH. But if they really want to analyse the chaotic data of our daily lift-club logistics, they’re welcome to it. We can’t make head or tail of it anyway.

Next, just 48 hours after taking over as Walmart’s new CEO,  John Furner saw his ship reach $1tn market capitalisation on Tuesday, the first brick-and-mortar retailer to do so. In reaching this heady threshold, Walmart joins an elite club that is dominated by tech and AI infrastructure giants like Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet (Google’s parent company)… and that’s just the As. And while new CEOs often join companies to turn them around, this time, Furner has the daunting task of keeping the company on top. At 51 years of age, Furner has been at Walmart for 30 years where he started as an hourly associate in the garden centre before eventually leading Sam’s Club and Walmart U.S. He plans to spend his first few weeks as CEO visiting stores and engaging directly with employees, where he will ask them a simple question: “Tell me one thing that slows you down or makes it harder to do your job.” As things currently stand, Furner is viewed very favourably by investors, industry analysts and within the company, with analysts describing him as “tech-savvy” and a “detail-oriented” operator. All the right creds then, to take the retail behemoth forward.