Hoping that January’s back-to-school stationery buying frenzy will kick-start its recovery, CNA, one of SA’s oldest brands, has slashed the prices of key items on schools’ stationery lists.
The new owners of SA’s 120-year-old iconic stationery company, which has lost massive ground to competitors in recent years, recently sent Sunday Times Daily a spreadsheet of its school stationery items, comparing its prices with the same items advertised by PNA, Makro and Waltons in their Back to School catalogues.
In most cases, its prices were cheaper, in some cases by far, than those of its competitors.
But on Monday, the Shoprite group released its back to school stationery prices, which undercut many of CNA’s prices, making Shoprite a major contender in the Back To School stationery prices race — at least in this survey.
Sunday Times Daily asked Pick n Pay to provide its school stationery prices, but the retailer has yet to respond.
What this five-supplier survey highlights is the huge variance in prices for the same items.
This is the deal in retail: either you sell products at decent margins … or you sell goods at a huge volume at low margins. If you are doing neither then your business is in trouble.
— CNA CEO Benjamin Trisk
Take a 500-sheet pack of Typek A4 paper, for example. CNA’s price tag is the cheapest at R49.90, followed by Shoprite/Checkers at R52.99. Makro sells it for R54.80, PNA for R59.90 and Waltons for R71.79.
In most cases, CNA’s flip files are cheaper than its competitors, apart from the Butterfly Pocket A4 50-page one, which Shoprite/Checkers sells for R43.99, compared to CNA’s R48.90, Makro’s R47.80 and Waltons’s R59.
When it comes to Pritt glue, Shoprite Checkers is the cheapest source of the five: R25.99 for a single 22g stick, versus R33.50 at Waltons, R29.90 at CNA and R27.80 at Makro.
Shoprite/Checkers is selling exercise and counter books at the lowest prices; for example, its A4 3 Quire 288-page quad and margin counter book is R17.99, versus R21.90 at CNA, R22.99 at PNA, R29.80 at Makro and R26.50 at Waltons.
The classic A4, 100-sheet exam pad also makes for an interesting price comparison: R9.99 at Shoprite/Checkers; R11.99 at PNA, R14.90 at Makro (R29.80 for a 2-pack) and R14 at Waltons.
Parents of children who need the Casio scientific calculator Fx82 Za Plus will be interested to learn that it’s selling for R323 at Waltons, R269 at Makro, R273.99 at PNA and just R199 at both CNA and Shoprite/Checkers.
Here are some other highlights from the pricing survey:
Mon Ami 12-pack retractable wax crayons:
- CNA: R39
- P&A: R53.99
- Makro: R56.80
- Waltons: R48
- Shoprite/Checkers: R42.99
Staedtler Noris Club 10 assorted ballpoint pens:
- CNA’s and PNA’s price: R26.99
- Makro: R29.80
- Waltons: R34.50
- Shoprite/Checkers: R22.99
Staedtler Tradition HB Pencil pack:
- CNA’s and PNA’s price: R20
- Makro: R21.80
- Waltons: R24
- Shoprite/Checkers: R15.99
- (PNA doesn’t stock it)
• CNA was sold to Astoria Investments and other shareholders for R1 in February by Edcon, which two months later went into business rescue. Edcon bought CNA, one of SA’s oldest brands, 18 years ago for R141m.
CNA CEO Benjamin Trisk told BusinessLIVE last June that he was optimistic the company would turn its fortunes around in time, starting with the Back to School campaign of 2021.
“This is the deal in retail: either you sell products at decent margins ... or you sell goods at a huge volume at low margins. If you are doing neither then your business is in trouble,” he said at the time.
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