Today Massmart and Wal-Mart made their closing arguments before the Competition Tribunal after a week of hearings that saw both companies as well as competitors give testimony. While Massmart CEO Grant Pattison said that local procurement makes good commercial sense, the imposed procurement targets do not. As a commenter on this article put it: "The other retailers in the country must either be rolling with laughter if these conditions are imposed or quaking in their boots in fear that these conditions may find their way onto the statute books and impinge on their profitability. Absolute craziness." And the World Trade Organisation would agree. Meanwhile, Shoprite is still threatening to resort to cheap imports should Wal-Mart enter the local market. In February, Shoprite's CE Whitey Basson said, "If need be, we will close down a South African pasta manufacturer in three months if we can import their product cheaper to compete." I, for one, still can't quite grasp how it's possible that importing goods from the other side of the planet is cheaper than making it in our own backyard. It does however remind me of a comment a friend made when visiting from the UK a few years ago - she couldn't believe how expensive our food had become. So we could argue that we're paying first world prices with third world salaries... But are we? When there are demands for wage hikes and benefits way beyond inflation rates and exorbitant salaries and bonuses being paid out to top brass, it becomes apparent that we're just eating ourselves. Higher output costs equals higher shelf costs which means demand for bigger salaries which only leads back to higher output costs. It would seem we really are our own worst enemy.


Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor
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