The Covid19 pandemic and related restrictions had a dramatic impact on consumer shopping behaviour, particularly for wine consumption. Despite the easing of restrictions, many people still prefer to enjoy a glass of wine in the safety of their homes and online wine sales have increased dramatically during this time, with Woolworths seeing double digit online wine sales growth.

Woolworths has expanded its offering and opened a new concept standalone liquor store, adjoining the Food Market of their Nicolway branch in Bryanston, Johannesburg. WCellar opened its doors on 27 May, and services the Bryanston/Sandton area, promising to bring customers the very best in whatever they need for a well-stocked wine and liquor cabinet, or fridge.

The Shoprite Group opened four new stores across three provinces between 27 and 29 April 2021.

Food Lover’s Market has announced expansion plans for 2021 which will see the grocery retailer spend R250 million on a number of new locations and refurbish older format stores.

The Shoprite Group now generates a substantial amount of power using solar panels Its biggest solar PV project, at the Basson distribution centre, covers the surface area of an entire soccer field

Woolworths has announced that an additional 50 stores plus two new stores will be single-use plastic shopping bag free by the end of April and has replaced plastic packaging with kraft packaging in popular ‘Ripe and Ready’ avocados which equates to an annual plastic saving of 35 - 40 tons.

Shoprite and Packa-Ching have launched a second mobile buy-back centre in the Eastern Cape, following the recent success of the programme in East London.

Engen’s fast-food convenience offering is flourishing, and Cape Town customers can now enjoy a slice of Andiccio24’s delicious pizza at the newly opened Engen Settler’s Way Convenience Centre in Mowbray.

Checkers Sixty60 has launched a South African supermarket first with a new recycling initiative for its popular brown paper bags that will help close the recycling loop for its customers.

The Shoprite Group now generates enough electricity to power over 1 100 households - 12 300 MWh of electricity - a year from solar energy, following the installation of rooftop PV (photovoltaic) panels at 19 sites in South Africa and Namibia.

More than 525,000 people have signed up for Veganuary - a non-profit movement that encourages people across the globe to take the pledge to try vegan for January. This has broken sign-up records only just days into January, surpassing last year’s total sign-ups of 400 000.

Clicks, South Africa’s largest retail pharmacy chain, has opened its 600th pharmacy at Nicolway Shopping Centre in Bryanston, Johannesburg. This forms part of the group’s long-term goal to expand its national footprint to 900 stores in South Africa, with a pharmacy operating in every store.