Department Stores & Fashion Catalogue This Week in South Africa

What counts as department and fashion retail here

Open the catalogues in this group and you will quickly notice that it is not one tidy format. Some names are classic department stores, some are clothing chains, one is a jeweller, and two are shops built around babies and young children. On AdsSOS the hub holds eleven retailers, and we keep them together because shoppers search for them in the same breath: "clothing catalogue", "catalogue for ladies", "catalogue for kids". If you want the wider picture of how South Africans read weekly and monthly catalogues, start with the South Africa catalogue overview.

The department-store side is Woolworths, Edgars, Jet, Babies R Us and Baby City. The fashion side is Mr Price, Truworths, Foschini, Ackermans, PEP Stores and Sportscene. Sterns sits on its own as a jewellery brand.

Who owns whom

A lot of confusion disappears once you know the groups behind the names. TFG Limited, formerly The Foschini Group and listed on the JSE, owns Foschini (Foschini catalogue), Sportscene (Sportscene catalogue) and Sterns (Sterns catalogue), and has owned Jet (Jet catalogue) since 2020. Ackermans (Ackermans catalogue) and PEP Stores catalogue come from the Pepkor side, with Ackermans acquired by Pepkor in 1984. Edgars (Edgars catalogue) has been with Retailability since 2020, while Truworths (Truworths catalogue), headquartered in Cape Town, traces its history to 1917 and runs a stable of card stores beyond its main brand. Mr Price catalogue started in Klerksdorp in 1985, is headquartered in Durban and trades on the JSE as MRP.

Why does this matter for a catalogue reader? Because ownership shapes the online shop, the loyalty scheme and the returns routine. TFG has put several of its brands on its Bash platform: the Foschini and Jet web addresses redirect to Bash, and a trade report from April 2024 describes Jet launching its online presence there after years of mainly selling in physical stores. A June 2026 trade report adds that TFG calls Bash strong and is looking at using some floor space as online order hubs.

Baby and children's specialists

Babies R Us is operated by Amic Trading under licence from Michmir Investments. Its free Rewards Club has a virtual card that covers up to three children, and its delivery options include same-day in selected areas and free Click & Collect. Baby City aims at first-time parents; Dis-Chem agreed in May 2020 to buy it, and it had 33 stores at that time.

Loyalty, accounts and payment routes

The schemes differ more than the clothes do. Woolworths now runs MyDifference, with an app and a physical card, which replaced WRewards and MySchool after 30 June 2026. BusinessTech reports that a card used without linking it to the Woolies app only earns instant savings on selected items, while the app unlocks the personalised and app-only rewards. That is a practical point if you collect the Woolworths catalogue for its food and clothing pages: register the card in the app.

Truworths runs account cards across Truworths, Man, Uzzi, Office London, Earthaddict, Earthchild, Naartjie and Loads of Living. Foschini points to the free TFG Rewards card, and Sterns customers pay their TFG Money account online. Mr Price lists mrp Money, Mr Price Rewards, Payflex and layby on its site, and Ackermans has been profiled as offering credit, lay-by, cash and bill payments. The real query "which clothing stores use payflex" shows shoppers asking exactly this, so check the store's own site before you plan around a payment method.

Returns and the Consumer Protection Act

Store return windows vary: Edgars catalogue allows 30 days in store with a receipt, while Babies R Us allows 60 days for sealed items with proof of purchase. Truworths online returns are 30 days with a dispatch note. A store window is not the whole story, though. EWN's consumer column explains that section 56 of the Consumer Protection Act gives six months, not a store's shorter window, to return defective goods, at the supplier's risk and expense, and that a returns policy cannot override those rights. Changing your mind is a separate matter and follows the store's own terms.

Trading hours and Sundays

"Pep stores opening hours sunday" is one of the most typed queries for this group. A small-business guide on SME South Africa states that there is no single national law setting uniform trading hours; municipal bylaws, industry licences and labour rules all play a part, and shopping-centre tenants are often bound by lease hours. So a store in a mall can keep different hours from the same brand on a high street. Check the store finder for your branch before a Sunday trip, and treat any catalogue date as the validity of the offers, not the opening hours.

Reading the catalogue calendar

Catalogue cycles differ. The current Mr Price catalogue runs 1 to 31 October 2026 and has five pages, which is a month-long booklet rather than a weekly flyer. Queries such as "woolworths catalogue specials this week" and "truworths specials this week" show people still look for weekly timing, so always read the validity dates printed on the front.

Practical ways to use these catalogues

• Look up the department stores first when you need a mixed basket: Jet catalogue lists free delivery thresholds and excludes furniture, so read the fine print.
• Check a jewellery catalogue such as Sterns catalogue for rings, and keep the original slip, since the group policy asks for it.
• For food from Woolworths, compare with the supermarkets catalogue hub.