Forget The 10% Discount For A Moment. The Item In Makro's Pensioner Data That Should Make Retailers Look Twice Is Lpg Gas.

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Forget The 10% Discount For A Moment. The Item In Makro's.

Pensioner Data That Should Make Retailers Look Twice Is Lpg Gas.

Makro says its senior customers commonly buy everyday necessities, including bread, milk, tissue, baked beans, cleaning products, refuse bags, bananas, soft drinks and LPG gas.

LPG sitting among those purchases deserves attention.

Because the household budget is no longer simply a food budget.

Electricity competes with groceries.

Transport competes with groceries.

Cleaning products compete with groceries.

Every rand allocated somewhere else changes what reaches your till.

NERSA approved an average 8.76% electricity tariff increase for Eskom direct customers from 1 April 2026 and 9.01% for municipal customers from 1 July.

Now put yourself in the position of somebody trying to manage a fixed monthly income.

The Older Persons Grant is R2,400 for qualifying recipients aged 60 to 74.

That customer still needs food.

Electricity.

Transport.

Personal care.

Household cleaning.

Medication may also have to come from the same limited household resources.

Makro's basket data should therefore make supermarket buyers think beyond category sales.

Watch substitutions between categories.

Watch pack-size migration.

Watch what happens during the final ten days before the next income payment.

Watch whether customers move from premium brands into value brands.

Watch whether large packs really represent value when the customer cannot afford the cash outlay.

And stop assuming that the lowest unit price automatically wins.

A R200 pack can offer excellent value per kilogram and still be unaffordable to a customer with R70 left.

This is where independent supermarkets should have an advantage.

You are closer to the customer.

You can see the behaviour changing before a national report tells you it changed.

Your till data should tell you when smaller packs accelerate.

Your floor staff should know which products customers are putting back.

Your buyers should know which essentials cannot be allowed to go out of stock around grant-payment periods.

Makro is using its senior-customer purchasing data to understand what these households actually need.

That is far more valuable than simply knowing their age.

When did your buying team last study the basket of your older customers separately from the rest of the store?

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Disclaimer: Personal views are based on public info and my SA retail experience. Independent commentary, not representing any BRAND, its management, franchisees, suppliers or employees.

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