It was all predictable, I think to myself as I read up on Irwin Rinder's concept of the ‘status gap’ one evening. A status gap exists in societies when a significant social and economic chasm exists between a society's ruling elite and its masses. Such gaps were common in feudal Europe and colonial states. In societies where large status gaps exist, the ruling elite are reluctant to deal directly with the lower classes in business dealings, viewing such engagements as below their social status and dignity. The status gap therefore often impedes the flow and distribution of goods between the ruling classes and the rest of society. This in turn produces, in Rinder's words, ‘an economic gap which persists until filled by a third party’.

To say that a status gap existed during apartheid South Africa is an understatement. Prior to democratic rule, the country's economy was mostly in white South African hands, and populations lived in divided and racially homogenous neighbourhoods. The same patterns of racialised inequality and geographical settlement still persist today. These conditions impacted on the way that economic markets operated and developed, the grocery sector being no exception. South African supermarket chains neglected township markets for decades. For white South Africans who owned and managed multibillion rand conglomerates, townships were alien and distant social and economic satellites. They were looked down upon as poor, turbulent and unfamiliar spaces to be avoided.

Status gaps usually do not serve economies and citizens very well. In South Africa millions of black township residents across the country were to a large extent cut off from formalised large-scale grocery distribution chains, reliant on mostly rudimentary spaza shops for many of their household items. While these shops were a source of employment for some residents, they often did not adequately meet broad customer needs. Residents that I spoke to in 2010 and 2011 complained that spaza shops that were South African owned were generally expensive and poorly managed. They had small product ranges, were often out of stock, had shorter operating hours, and frequently did not possess the right quantities of change. At the dawn of democracy it could be safe to say that a status gap opened up a corresponding gap for foreign retailers in South Africa's grocery market.