Too ambitious: Choppies lost money here because it expanded too far and too wide from its base. Picture: Bloomberg/Waldo Swiegers
Perhaps it was the sense of fragility that enticed them. Less remarkable is that while Spar and Pick n Pay weren’t sufficiently impressed with what they saw, South Africa’s big retail gorilla seems to think there’s potential. Having talked and walked away twice, Shoprite has apparently returned a third time and is close to inking a deal with the previously Botswana-owned retailer.
This view is shared by independent retail analyst Syd Vianello, who says Choppies lost money here because it expanded too far and too wide from its base. “It had to send a delivery truck long distances to service just one store; it didn’t make sense.”