It's just hit 8am in Rockville, Soweto, as local schoolchildren line up at the delicatessen at the Emabheleni Market store. Their school bags are piled up at the entrance of the 180m� store as they wait for their morning favourites: polony and magwinya (vetkoek). "In this particular store our deli is the biggest department," says owner Nkululeko Mbhele. "Kids are here to buy magwinya. This used to happen even before it was Pick n Pay, so these are our old customers." Mbhele recently converted his 40-year- old family-owned store into a Pick n Pay spaza shop as part of an initiative with the retailer, the Gauteng department of economic development, Old Mutual, Brimstone and Mazisane to revive township economies by converting existing spaza stores. Pick n Pay has seven spaza shops and plans to have 17 across South Africa by 2018. Mbhele's store, like the other six, has 1200 product lines of Pick n Pay groceries, fresh produce and perishables, which make up about 70% of the goods that a...
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