Hey dudes; Garagistes way to go, I reckon. The problem big retail has, is that landlords like OM are no-longer giving them sweet deals for their 'anchor tenant' status. (this has been part of P&P's troubles of late - cannot grow market share because they are running outa places to go.) This means they are having to pay more for rents in big centers, eating into margins. There's also more'n enuf malls too, so growth in the bulk shopping market uncertain. This leaves convenience shopping a relatively new and undeveloped market in SA. I think Woolies and the rest figger that it's better to join a growing retail sector rather than try and canabalise each other in the shopping mall arena. Still, brand maintainence is a hard one to keep goin. All comes down to warehousing and logistics. I understand Woolies is goin slow with its rollouts, so as not to foul things up. A last point: Woolies began selling furniture and, ulp, lime-coloured suits awhile back. Was part of their desperate attempt to grow market share in the conventional retail mall environment by expanding their products. They got burned. So now they seem back to core products, and seem to be spending their energy on logistics and growing market share by getting closer to customers through convenience stores, instead of stocking narly pimp suits and stuffed chintz couches.