Considering its fantastic performance in the first half of the financial year, Shoprite could be forgiven its marginal slowdown in the second half. Woolworths didn't bear up quite as well. MTN is showing signs of stabilising, though at a much reduced share price.

Retail wars: Shoprite and Woolworths

In case you were wondering whether anything is slowing Shoprite down, the answer is that there does seem to be a minor loss of momentum in the growth there.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsBut we are still talking about double-digit growth. When the first half of the year saw growth of 13.9%, it's not hard to forgive a "slowdown" to 10.2% in the second half.

It's even easier to forgive when you remember that the Massmart store acquisition wasn't in the base for the first half, so the second-half numbers are a more realistic view anyway.

The real magic continues at Checkers and Checkers Hyper, up 12.3%. The turquoise scooter army rode on, with growth of 58.1% at Sixty60. The group continues to resonate with shoppers in lower-income brackets as well, and Shoprite and Usave are up 10.7%. Although we don't have a view yet on profitability for the 52 weeks to June, sales were clearly fantastic.

Woolworths cannot say the same thing, unfortunately, with a really disappointing performance for the 53 weeks to June 2024. We need to use 52-week numbers to make them comparable. An adjustment is also needed to...