Stellenbosch wine festival back for 2018, switches to cards for tastings.

South Africa’s premier wine festival, the Stellenbosch Wine Festival 2018, returned this weekend and ran from Friday until today, with the 3-day event offering the best of the Stellenbosch Wine Routes and now also doing cashless cards to do tastings.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival ran from Friday 23 Feburary to Sunday 25 February at the picturesque Coetzenburg sport grounds and this year included a tiered approach in terms of a general wine tasting experience, as well as a premium wine tasting experience.

In the general tier, visitors could taste and buy wines from 60 wine farms. A ticket costing R150 on Friday and R190 on Saturday and Sunday included a branded wine glass and a cashless card with 20 pre-loaded tastings.

The premium wine tasting experience costing R350 includes award-winning Stellenbosch wine of origin wines, seven cultivar-themed tables and a chance to meet the winemakers, a branded wine glass for tasting, and a cashless card with 30 free pre-loaded tastings, as well as a Charcuterie platter per person.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival sponsored by Pick n Pay had a Gourmet Food Lane with live entertainment and again a really great kids play area (2 – 12 years) with a lot of activities where children can be dropped off for a period of time and will be looked after and entertained. Children under 18 can enter the festival for free.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival has now, in keeping with contemporary trends, switched to a cashless system, allowing visitors to enjoy the festival with a safe and manageable event currency solution.

“Every stand you purchase from, whether you’re buying wine by the bottle or food from Gourmet Lane, will be set up with a point of sale system that works like a debit card,” says the festival.

The cashless card is included in the ticket price and comes pre-loaded with either 20 or 30 tastings, depending on the ticket package bought.

Cards that run out of credit or tasting coupons can be reloaded at the branded cashless area.

The Stellenbosch Wine Festival this year will include wines from over 60 different wine farms. Tickets are available from webtickets.co.zafg

Pick n Pay over grandmother 'break and pay' incident: 'We should have handled the situation better' says family retailer.

Pick n Pay says the retailer should have handled a situation better where an extremely traumatised grandmother and her grandson on Saturday were reduced to tears on the floor in Mitchells Plain after he broke a chocolate and store security and management demanded she pay.

After the shocking incident that quickly went viral on social media, consumers have raised concerns about how the "family" retailer handled the matter.

Parents and caregivers are also raising concerns about whether it's "safe" to still go to Pick n Pay, fearful and scared over what will now happen if they or minors break or damage something in a Pick n Pay and are held liable.

A distraught Lentegeur grandmother was captured on the Pick n Pay tiles, holding her crying grandson in her arms, surrounded by Pick n Pay security in Mitchells Plain after the youngster broke a Dairy Milk slab.

After her grandson initially took the chocolate and asked his grandmother if he could have it, she told him to put it back. The child did put it back but also broke the chocolate.

Pick n Pay security then demanded that she pay for the damaged product.

The grandmother became emotional and said she doesn't have the money with the situation that quickly escalated because Pick n Pay didn't handle it properly.

With a growing number of bystanders, security and store management, emotions kept building up and a disastrous scene ensued that Pick n Pay managed badly and reflected negatively on the retailer.

Pick n Pay admits that the incident was unacceptable and that the retailer is very sorry for any distress caused.

"We have now met with our customer from the store in Mitchells Plain," Jarrett van Vuuren, general manager of Pick n Pay in the Western Cape told TVwithThinus on Monday.

"We have apologised and stressed that our franchise should have handled the situation better," he said.

"Our customer is happy with our response and considers the matter to be resolved. We are pleased that she will continue to shop in our store."

The traumatised grandmother who feels highly embarrassed over the incident doesn't want to talk to the media.

BREAKING. e.tv adds another advertiser funded TV show just to make some quick money: Say hello to Pick n Pay's Fresh Living TV.

e.tv's unbridled dalliance with shrill advertiser funded TV shows in prime time is set to continue with Fresh Living TV sponsored by Pick n Pay set to start on Monday, 6 September for 13 episodes on the channel.

E.tv is once again turning over 13 half hours of its prime time real estate this September to a commercial advertiser, with Pick n Pay's marketing director Jonathan Ackerman referring to Fresh Living TV in a press release as ''far more than an advertiser-funded TV show''. The same press release refers to Fresh Living TV forming part of ''Pick n Pay's new, consumer-focused approach to advertising'' and the show is called not good television or anything remotely connected to TV, but an ''extended branded entertainment platform''.

This latest e.tv advertiser funded show, referred to as ''a fusion of the lifestyle and reality TV genres'' will present ''everyday domestic disasters, with solutions provided by Pick n Pay's Fresh Living team of experts'' - no doubt using well-placed Pick n Pay product placement. Fresh Living editor Justine Drake will also be inserted into this ''extended branded entertainment platform'' opportunity and appear on Fresh Living TV ''providing delicious, affordable cooking solutions'' - all of course prepared with only blatantly placed Pick n Pay food products.

When TV stations like e.tv persist in turning over television time to advertisers in the form of advertiser funded shows that they brand as their own, the result is often crap. TV producers make television, not advertisers. Advertisers' main aim is to sell. And sadly e.tv seems unable to resist the lure of these selling sirens.

Survivor SA Santa Carolina: Pick n Pay's absolutely perfect product placement.

As a TV critic and writer I thought Pick 'n Pay had pitch perfect product placement in last night's episode of Survivor SA Santa Carolina, Wednesday's on M-Net at 19:30.

What you do NOT want as a TV viewer, is a sponsor running crazy with overt brand logo's, in-your-face products and shilling wares/products/services everywhere. Last night during the reward challenge where celeb contestant Okkert Brits won a crate full of Pick 'n Pay food was done in severely great taste, the sponsored ''prize'' completely fit the challenge (i.e. food in a crate they can really use), the display and brand superbly got integrated seamlessly without any crass over-display into the narrative of the reality show.

TV channels, producers and show runners are usually NOT strong enough to integrate product placement as well as it happened in this way, or to push back against advertisers/sponsors once they are on board a TV show.

Pick n Pay's No Name brand, all the No Name food in a simple branded Pick n Pay crate, the way even the eating of the chips led to drama in the show and a discussion among the contestants on how they would use what ingredients, were all just a pitch perfect example of how TV product placement could work and should be done. M-Net and producer Endemol SA got it perfectly right.