The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity group provides an interesting service - it tracks the value of a basic food basket through the prices that consumers actually pay at the till. This is extremely important to get insight into the buying patterns of the middle-to-lower income consumer - people who rely on social grants and state pensions. Mervyn Abrahams explains the vital role that the PMBEJD organisation plays in reflecting the lived experience of customers, as opposed to faceless CPI statistics.