Overview of the Retail Industry

According to research, while self-employment does not typically react to economic downturns, it acts as a default option for survival or for maintaining income, often in the informal economy, in a crisis. For this reason, informal employment tends to increase during...

Sub-Saharan Africa is hampered by chronic malnutrition and access to food is highly dependent on cross-border markets, and it is estimated that 75% of this trade is informal. A substantial share of this constitutes staple foods. Thus, informal trade has a direct...

Most information on urban food systems focuses on the expansion of supermarkets and their ability to reach urban consumers. However, rising urban poverty among other things has created a rise in informality and a larger role for the informal food sector. A persistent...

South Africa’s informal farming sector contributes far more to the economy and ultimately to food security than is officially recognised. More should be done to develop this sector and to intensify farming endeavours. Agriculture is generally the only one of ten...

Most South African-owned spaza stores referred to as ‘survivalists’ and operating mainly from the owner’s home, did not survive the onslaught of corporate retailers in townships and commuter nodes. But from 2009 or 2010 a new shape of spaza store appeared with the...