Having given far too much credit to the holidays, I had to eat my words last week: retail trade sales climbed a mere 1%, Stats SA reported on Wednesday. At least I wasn't the only one dining on humble pie - Steers learned a big lesson in marketing and PR... On Thursday, wholesale sales were up by 8.1% - but we may see this taper off too, with tough trading likely to continue and retailers scaling down orders. Cash withdrawals for May also slowed post-holidays, but was up year-on-year. In other news... Winemakers - learn how to protect your plonk, but beware trademark rulings; Raymond Ackerman tells us how he would fix the country if he were president; and Clicks had a week of highs and lows, launching its mobile healthcare voucher service and losing its MD. On a quirky note, BOS Ice Tea has set up BEV, a robotic vending machine, in Cape Town's Wembley Square, to allow users to sample its drinks. But this isn't just any standard vending machine and doesn't use coins for activation. No, BEV is activated by tweets. That's right. BEV will dispense a drink at the touch of a hashtag. But before you think you can set the drinks rolling from across the country, good ol' BEV checks your location first. Wonders never cease... Have a great week!

Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor
Please send retail news to: retailnews@bizcommunity.com
Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net