#8216;spaza shops’, which are convenience stores at the heart of the community in SA townships. Often set up in private houses, I discovered that ‘spaza’ was originally a slang term for camouflaged. So these are literally secret stores, designed to be visible to locals but to fly just slightly below the radar of the authorities. There are many other forms of disorganised retail in SA. Enterprising merchants pop up at traffic lights cheerily trying to flog drivers impulse buys such as toy helicopters. Around major transport hubs such as the central Park Station in Johannesburg, stallholders hover with fake Levis, baseball caps, and Converse shoes. They’re all just trying to make a buck in a country with 25 per cent official unemployment. Sellers often purchase their goods from cash and carry warehouse stores such as Super Jumbo, where the range of product runs from fireworks to fruit infused shampoos. At one of these stores, I saw a massive banner near the cash register with an image of Nelson Mandela and the line, “TATA you will always be remembered”. There’s also refined retail in SA. I found two of the most creative and stylishly executed craft markets I’ve seen anywhere – the Old Biscuit Mill and the Water Shed, both in Cape Town. Most ingenious product sold at the Water Shed? Used tea bags “repurposed with hope”. Most quirky? Electric guitars fashioned out of old oil cans, which actually had an incredible tone. Most desirable? Fashion bags stitched in townships out of scraps of cloth. (SA has a heritage of refashioning discarded items and brands into something useful, or just beautiful.) Around the Old Biscuit Mill markets, I witnessed leading edge technology in use. A stallholder completed a credit card transaction with an iKhokha (which is Zulu for ‘pay’) dongle plugged into his mobile phone. Nearby, a glamorous furniture store armed its patrons with iPads which, when you scanned the price tickets, gave you information on each product. South Africans, like much of Africa, are tech savvy and mobile enabled. At Park Station, I saw a billboard for the M-Pesa platform, which allows people to transfer money easily via their phones, in a way that you still can’t in the US. SA also has its fair share of world class regular retail too. Above the Pick ‘n Pay on Nicol supermarket in Johannesburg sits a huge and gleaming Good Food Studio, where customers and corporates alike can learn about the finer aspects of wine and food, or sample sweet treats in the Chocolate Room. At the Waterstone Village Centre in Cape Town is a Woolworths store, which was voted Best Supermarket in the World 2014, according to The Association of Retail Environments Awards. I was taken there by author and retail commentator, Martin Butler, and we both observed that the store checked many of the boxes for supermarket retail today  in terms of display, brand language, sustainability, and services. Less than 24 hours after I was there, however, a security guard was shot dead in the same shopping centre. That’s the truly wild side of SA retail, and society there generally.   The disparity between the haves and have nots is so great that it can result in theft and violence. Mall car parks have security entrances, and you pay a small amount to have your vehicle watched. Returning home with your purchases, you are likely to bunker down behind razor wire and security systems. Many locals will tell you that it’s not that bad, but to me at least SA felt more dangerous than the US, which in turn seems less safe than my home country, Australia. It hasn’t stopped the entry of the big international players such as Zara and Topshop though. SA retail is globalising along with the rest of the world. The mix of first world and third world environments makes SA one of the most interesting markets I have ever visited for retail. Yes, there’s a tension between opposing ends of the retail spectrum, but it’s never, ever dull. Perhaps that’s why sales are rising at 8.8 per cent p.a. As the best retailers know, you can’t bore people into buying. Jon Bird is MD – Global of Labstore, Y&R’s worldwide retail and shopper marketing network. Email: jon.bird@yrlabstore.com. Twitter: @thetweetailer. Blog: www.newretailblog.com.