The good news is, I must be getting stronger. Not too long ago, I risked a hernia trying to pick up groceries costing a couple of hundred rands. Last week I just managed to hoist R500-worth. I reckon, if prices continue rising the way they have been, I should be able to heft groceries worth R750, or even more, by the time October arrives. Of course, I am not getting stronger, but I am rapidly becoming poorer... and I am becoming more and more frustrated with the retailers blaming the middleman, and the middleman blaming the producer, and the producer blaming the middleman, and the middleman blaming the retailer. Over the weekend I spotted a message in our local newspaper's SMS column, to the effect that a particular product was cheaper overseas that here... much cheaper! Quite frankly, I'm tired of the blame game - it's like the taxi industry... it's never "us" but it's always "them". All parties owe it to all of us to sort out the problem - and now, rather than later, because the poor are suffering. If the parties don't genuinely set out to solve the problem, people will become more and more desperate. Food riots are not unknown in other parts of the world, and let's face it, we don't want to see them here. Right?

Rod Baker, guest columnist retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive. Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.