I hope you caught Pick n Pay chairman Gareth Ackerman’s interview with CNN. It had all the bits that make for good TV: nostalgia and a scathing attack on the administration. I won’t ruin it for you (it can be streamed), but he went into the retailer’s history and where its focus will be in future. If, like me, you are any type of nerd, you’ll appreciate that the shots are interspersed with dated Pick n Pay store pictures — some from before "the great rebranding exercise" of 2007. Do you remember it? It was supposed to signal the deeper underlying transformation and revitalisation the grocer was undergoing. But one can’t ignore the popular opinion that the makeover — which cost north of R100m — was really where the group began losing its way, and that the money would have been better spent on centralised distribution.I may have previously explained what centralised distribution is, but in case you missed it, and as a kindness, here we go: "stuff" gets to stores from a central warehou...

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