“Unnecessary, duplicative and outrageously expensive” – these were the words used by Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers to describe the bread composition inspection contract revoked by the Minister of Agriculture on Tuesday. First proposed in 2016, the contract awarded to Leaf Services by the Department of Agriculture meant that Leaf would appoint 13 inspectors to conduct onsite bread composition inspections at a cost of R50m per year. Payment to Leaf Services would have been compulsory for grain producers, millers and retailers, forcing the industry to pay for a service that was previously free, thus raising the price of one of South Africa’s biggest staples. “When applying this to Pick n Pay alone, the inspection methodology proposed by Leaf Services, which included three annual inspections at each of our 920 stores across the country, raised significant concerns. The sampling process would have required duplicate samples from each batch and size of bread, drawn from the point of sale. Given that our batch codes are determined by the day’s production, this methodology would have substantially increased the operational complexity and cost for our business, and that of all other retailers,” explained Summers. Summers went on to say that the contract would have cost Pick n Pay at least R10m and Boxer R15m per year. Since its proposal, the contract has been challenged by the CGCSA, Grain SA, the Chamber of Baking and others, all of which are justifiably relieved at the Minister’s decision.

We’re not the biggest fan of price comparisons, tbh, but this one piqued our interest. According to a MyBroadband comparison of 20 popular grocery items between Amazon, Takealot, Checkers and Pick n Pay, the new guy came out on top… or at the bottom in this case. The basket, which included the likes of All Gold Tomato Sauce, BabySoft TP, Tastic Rice, Aromat and Johnson’s Baby Powder, saw Amazon pipping Takealot by a not insignificant R780. Checkers and Pick n Pay came somewhere in between:

1. Amazon R1,353.43
2. Checkers R1,638.80
3. Pick n Pay R1,653.80
4. Takealot R2,133.00

The main reason for the disparity, according to MyBroadband, is Takealot’s policy of giving its resellers free rein on their selling prices – an example was spotted where a 50ml pack of Vaseline was listed at R120 by an independent reseller, versus the normal retail price of around R13 to R16. Amazon’s policy is to demote listings that are uncompetitive, removing the “Add to Basket” button from the listings.

Hip hip hooray and happy birthday to Boxer, which is celebrating its 48th year this month. And it is doing so through an array of big deals, bonus reward points and its famous competitions with prizes such as gas cooking kits, baby strollers and ‘Double Your Grant’. Not to be outdone, and on the back of Boxer’s ‘Black Friday’ deals earlier this month, Builders, Game and Makro will be holding their Halfway Day promotion this weekend, in celebration of the fact that we’re halfway through 2025 (shock, horror). “Game launched Halfway Day four years ago after identifying a cohort of customers who were actively shopping for mid-year deals on electronics and hard goods like appliances,” explains Andrew Stein, Marketing VP for Massmart, but “this year we expect that 75% of Halfway Day customers will shop for grocery essentials.” To this story now, Dis-Chem founder Ivan Saltzman has distributed 217 million shares in the business (worth R6.8bn) to two of his sons. The sons in question do not sit on Dis-Chem’s board, nor do they hold exec positions; however, their new shareholding will likely lead to a board reshuffle.

According to the British Office of National Statistics, UK retailers experienced ‘dismal’ sales in May, with volumes dropping -2.7%, the biggest monthly fall since Dec 2023. Sales of alcohol and tobacco were especially hard hit due to households cutting back, although clothing and household products weren’t going great guns either. According to a chief UK economist, the data is “evidence that the burst of economic growth” in the early part of the year “is over”. Over in the US, retail layoffs at FMCG retailers such as Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Amazon Fresh, CVS and Walgreens, among others, surged an alarming +274% in the first half of 2025 due to widespread store closures as a result of constrained consumer spending and macroeconomic uncertainty. Fingers have also been pointed at the streamlining of operations and adoption of AI as a cause. The flip side is that dollar stores like Dollar General and Dollar Tree have opened new locations, once again highlighting the growing importance of discount supers in shoppers’ retail repertoires. And still in the US, jumping onto the on-demand train is popular big-box retailer Costco, which will soon be offering a new ‘Priority Delivery’ option that allows certain items to be ordered and delivered within 30 minutes. It will also be adding ‘No-Rush Delivery’ to its services so shoppers can schedule orders hours or even days in advance. This as Walmart tests its first ‘dark store’ to fulfil online orders in Dallas, Texas, and shares plans to open another in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.