Revisiting the African supermarket revolution: The case of Windhoek, Namibia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Customer base of supermarket chains in South Africa. Source: Nortons Inc. (2016).

Table 1. Shoprite holdings in Africa, 2015 (No. of supermarkets).

	Shoprite	Checkers	Checkers Hyper	Usave	OK Express	Total
Angola	7			14		21
Botswana	5	1		5		11
DRC	1					1
Ghana	3			1		4
Lesotho	5			6	1	12
Madagascar	8					8
Malawi	3			3		6
Mauritius	3					3
Mozambique	8			3		11
Namibia	18	4		23		45
Nigeria	10					10
Swaziland	9			5	1	15
Uganda	3					3
Zambia	20			1		21
Total

Source: Dakora (2016:12).

Table 2. Number of supermarkets in Namibia and Windhoek.

	Namibia		Windhoek
	No.	%	No.	%
South African-owned
Shoprite	53	32.9	10	32.3
Pick n Pay	35	21.7	4	12.9
SPAR	29	18.0	4	12.9
Woolworths	6	3.7	2	6.4
Massmart-Walmart (Game)	4	2.5	2	6.4
Fruit & Veg City	4	2.5	3	9.7
Choppies	3		0
Namibian-owned
Woermann Brock (WB)	27	16.7	6	19.4
Total	161	100.0	31	100.0

Source: Company annual reports and websites.

Figure 2. Location of supermarkets in Windhoek.

Table 3. Location of supermarkets by constituency.

	No. of South African supermarkets	No. of Namibian supermarkets^a	Total	Poor/severely poor^b  %	% of food insecure households	Population (2011)	Persons per supermarket
Windhoek East	10	2	12	0.0	27.3	22 712	1893
Windhoek West	8	1	9	0.0	52.3	53 438	5938
John Pandeni	1	0	1	4.3	83.1	15 121	15 121
Katutura East	1	1	2	4.5	78.7	18 501	9255
Katutura Central	1	0	1	8.3	90.4	24 608	24 608
Khomasdal	1	0	1	14.7	86.0	43 921	43 921
Samora Machel	0	1	1	37.5	83.9	50 110	50 110
Tobias Hainyeko	1	0	1	36.1	88.9	45 912	45 912
Moses Garoeb	0	1	1	77.8	89.2	45 564	45 564
Total	23	6		100.0

^a Woermann Brock.

^b Based on 2016 NSA-NHIES poverty indicators.

Table 4. Source of foods in Checkers and Shoprite, Windhoek.

Product category	Total no. of products	Namibia	South Africa	Other SADC	Europe	Asia	Other
Cereals	136	68	51	0	6	11	1
Soft drinks	112	19	92	1	0	0	0
Snacks	108	30	71	0	3	3	1
Canned food	79	3	54	1	15	4	2
Sauces	43	0	39	0	0	4	0
Condiments	41	6	33	0	0	2	0
Spreads	31	0	23	0	4	2	2
Dairy	29	22	7	0	0	0	0
Desserts	24	0	24	0	0	0	0
Frozen foods	23	0	23	0	0	0	0
Meats	16	13	3	0	0	0	0
Total	642	161	419	2	28	26	6
%	100.0	25.1	65.3	0.3	4.4	4.0	0.9

Table 5. Main source of individual food items in previous month.

	% of households purchasing item	% purchasing at supermarkets	% purchasing from informal vendors	% purchasing from small shops
Staples
Maize meal	83	95.7	2.3	2.0
Bread	48	43.6	40.4	17.0
Rice	42	99.0	1.0	0.0
Pasta	39	99.6	0.2	0.2
Fresh produce
Meat	38	59.8	39.7	20.1
Vegetables	20	60.9	33.8	5.3
Fish	39	25.8	69.4	4.8
Milk	14	91.7	4.5	3.8
Eggs	12	21.6	70.0	8.4
Offal	13	8.3	66.2	8.3
Frozen produce
Chicken	16	88.0	9.3	2.7
Processed food
Cooking oil	77	91.1	6.1	2.3
Sugar	56	91.4	6.7	1.9
Tea/coffee	35	92.2	5.4	2.4
Butter/margarine	14	98.5	0.0	1.5
Cooldrinks	14	71.4	21.4	7.2

Table 6. Reasons for shopping at supermarkets.

	Agree	Neither agree nor disagree	Disagree
Supermarkets have a greater variety of foods	88.1	2.7	9.2
Supermarkets offer sales and discounts	82.3	3.9	13.8
Food is better quality at supermarkets	81.1	5.5	13.4
We can buy in bulk at supermarkets	76.4	3.3	20.3
Food is cheaper at supermarkets	44.4	6.0	49.6

Figure 3. South African and local supermarket patronage by type of housing area.

Nortons Inc, 2016. Grocery retail sector market inquiry: Pick n Pay submission. CCSA, Johannesburg.

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Dakora, E, 2016. Expansion of South African retailers’ activities into Africa. Project 2014/05. Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town.

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