Food inflation in South Africa has definitely come off the scary highs of the past few years, but most households will tell you their trolley still feels lighter than it should. Consumer food price inflation averaged about 11% in 2023, before easing to roughly 4.1% in 2024, with December 2024 down at 1.7% year-on-year. (https://agrisa.org.za/centre-of-excellence-economics/december-2024-consumer-price-index-cpi/)
By late 2025, food inflation is still moving around: Stats SA data shows food prices were up about 3.9% year-on-year in October 2025, Trading Economics while another release earlier in the year had food and non-alcoholic beverages rising faster than headline inflation. Reuters In plain English: prices aren’t exploding like before, but they’re still drifting upwards, and salaries are not exactly racing ahead to catch them.
For many South Africans, the response has been very practical – shop the specials harder, and use digital tools to do it properly.
From paper flyers to digital survival tools
For years, paper leaflets from Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Checkers, Boxer and others have been the unofficial “price guide” for the country. They still matter, but the way people use promotions has changed.
Three big shifts:
- Less random browsing, more planning – instead of paging through whatever leaflet lands in the post box, people actively hunt for deals on specific products.
- More comparison across chains – households switch between retailers more often, depending on who is running the sharpest promotions on staples.
- A move from paper to phone – catalogues are now something you check on your mobile while you’re planning payday shopping, not only at the store entrance.
That’s where digital catalogue platforms come in. Sites like Latestspecials.co.za pull together flyers and promotions from a wide range of national retailers – groceries, liquor, electronics, home & garden and more – into one place, so shoppers don’t have to jump from one store app to another.
1. Payday planning: turning “month-end shopping” into a strategy
For a lot of households, month-end or grant-day shopping is the big one: the full trolley, bulk packs of staples, meat for the freezer, cleaning products, nappies.
Here’s how digital catalogues are turning that from chaos into a plan:
- Scan the specials first
Before anyone sets foot in a store, families go through a few retailers’ online specials – often via an aggregator where they can flip through multiple catalogues in one session. - Build a realistic list
They match those specials to what’s actually needed at home: 10kg maize meal, cooking oil, rice, beans, chicken portions, long-life milk, washing powder, etc. - Choose a “main” store
Instead of driving from mall to mall, they pick one or two stores that tick the most boxes at the best prices, and maybe top up a couple of items elsewhere if the saving is big enough to justify the petrol.
The result is fewer random top-up runs during the month and fewer expensive “quick stops” where two items on the list mysteriously become a R400 till slip.
2. Cross-store comparison on true basket staples
In a low-growth, low-wage environment, a few rand here and there matter – especially on basics that go into the basket every single month.
Stats and briefings from agri-economists make the same point: staples like bread, maize meal, rice and pasta have been central to the way food inflation has slowed – but they’re also the items where any new price shock bites hardest. (https://bmr.co.za/2025/02/14/navigating-the-tide-food-inflation-in-south-africa/)
Digital catalogues help shoppers compare across retailers on those exact items:
- Unit price awareness
Looking at R/kg or R/litre, not just “big number on a red sticker”. - Brand flexibility
Seeing at a glance if it makes sense to switch from a big brand to a store brand this month. - Regional promotions
Some chains run different deals by province or even by city; online catalogues make those differences visible without driving around.
Instead of just trusting the nearest store to be “cheap enough”, shoppers can see who’s really sharp on eggs this week, who’s best on fresh produce, and who’s running a serious promo on cleaning products.
3. Stocking up when promotions are actually worth it
With inflation having come down into the 3–5% range overall in 2024–2025 (https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0141/P0141December2024.pdf), not every promotion is a once-in-a-lifetime saving – some are just marketing noise. The trick now is to spot the real deals and ignore the rest.
Digital catalogues make it easier to:
- Track patterns over time
Regular users quickly get a sense of what “normal” pricing looks like, and when a discount is genuinely out of line on the low side. - Prioritise non-perishables
When something like long-life milk, tinned fish, pasta, toilet paper or washing powder is clearly under its usual price range, households buy for 2–3 months instead of one. - Align with seasonal themes
Back-to-school campaigns, Easter and Christmas promos, or big sport events often bring real value on specific categories (lunchbox items, braai packs, cooldrinks). Seeing multiple catalogues together makes those patterns obvious.
For lower-income families who may already be spending most of their income on food and essentials, this kind of targeted stock-up can mean the difference between scraping by in week four or still having something in the cupboard.
4. Why this matters beyond the monthly grocery run
The rise of digital catalogues isn’t just a consumer story – it also has implications for retailers, banks and fintechs:
- Better data on how people actually shop
Every click, flip and search on a catalogue platform is a signal about interest in certain categories, brands or price points. - Opportunity for smarter loyalty and rewards
If retailers and financial institutions understand which specials are driving basket changes, they can structure more meaningful rewards and personalised offers. - A bridge between offline and online retail
Even when the final purchase happens in-store, the journey increasingly starts online – with a flyer, a search for “specials near me”, or a browse through aggregated catalogues.
For a site like Latestspecials.co.za, this means the value isn’t only in replacing paper leaflets; it’s in sitting at the intersection where inflation, consumer behaviour and retail technology meet.
Fighting inflation one catalogue at a time
South Africans can’t control the global price of fuel, droughts in grain-producing regions, or the rand’s next wobble against the dollar. But they can control how they respond at shelf level.
By:
- planning the big shop around verified promotions,
- comparing prices on core staples instead of guessing, and
- stocking up when discounts are genuinely attractive,
households are using digital catalogues and online specials as everyday tools in a long, grinding battle against rising living costs.
It’s not glamorous fintech. It’s not a shiny new app with a billion-rand valuation. But for the family standing at the stove in a two-bedroom RDP house or a small flat in town, it’s the kind of quiet innovation that helps stretch every rand in the pot.
