Pick n Pay reports on consumer strain amid rising food prices

Pick n Pay, which continues to narrow its loss, noted in a trading update that consumers remain “highly constrained”.

In its trading update, the retailer said it had kept its average price increases to 2.1% over the period.

That’s the same rate of increase it had for the full 2025 financial year and much lower than the 5.2% rise in overall food prices year-on-year as of August.

According to FinMark, some 12 million adults in South Africa are struggling

At the same time, the September Household Affordability Index, compiled by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group, showed that the basic food-basket cost for a family of four is around R3 690.

At the same time, unemployment remains at high levels given a lack of economic growth. In the second quarter, 80 000 jobs were lost.

As a result of the current environment, large and persistent joblessness, and insufficient household incomes, many households are dependent on credit or informal coping mechanisms.

Surveys and market research consistently show very high financial anxiety.

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Consumers are, unsurprisingly, not confident.

FNB/Bureau of Economic Research has found that consumer confidence plunged to very weak levels in 2025.

Pick n Pay, which will report its results on October 27, said that its headline earnings per share will come in 50% to 60% higher than in the previous comparable period.

It did benefit from online sales growth of 34.4%, driven by continued growth of Pick n Pay asap! and Pick n Pay groceries on the Mr D app.

The move to online living and food delivery services during COVID-19 persists and many companies are increasingly seeing growth in this area.

It will be reporting results for the 26 weeks to August.

Retailers report based on full week period rather than taking a monthly view as some days in a week will spill over to the next month.

Group turnover for the period increased 4.9%, with like-for-like sales up 4.7%, against the same period last year.

Like-for-like turnover growth showed improved momentum across all of the group's supermarket formats in the last two months of the period.

“The group views this as a credible performance in the context of a highly constrained consumer and continued subdued food [internal] price inflation,” it said.

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