New purchasing system at Choppies

The system has been named Choppies Gram. It started last December and was installed at all the 47 stores countrywide. Says the chain's Director of Public Relations Ben Stegling: "Simply put, Choppies Gram is about buying groceries from one store and collecting them conveniently from any other Choppies store in the country." Stegling sees the system as one way of apportioning credit among its well-deserving customer base and has been "made possible by the nationwide spread of Choppies stores."

He says their IT department has designed a particular entry system in the form of a code: "It acts like a postal address where you write the address you want your letter to reach. Every village has its own code, which is sent to the store the customer wants the groceries to be collected from. The code will also appear on the till slip."