The Shoprite Group opened an unprecedented four Checkers Hyper stores in the last six months of 2025. Historically, it has added a maximum of two a year.
The addition of four saw the footprint of its larger format outlets increase by 10%. There is currently at least one further Hyper under construction (at Irene Village Mall, which will open in the second half of 2026).
In the six months, it opened two in the Western Cape (Paarl Junction and Parklands, near Blouberg), one in KwaZulu-Natal (Westown) and one more in Joburg (Mushroom Farm near Kyalami in Midrand).
The second-last of these will take some time to ‘grow’ into, given the pace of development in a relatively undeveloped region.
Its overall catchment area, which comprises Hillcrest, Kloof, Pinetown and Camperdown, is sizeable but the R1.4 billion Westown Square remains only the core of the broader R15 billion project.
A curious choice
The last of these, at Mushroom Farm off the R55 along Allandale near Kyalami, is the most curious …
The group chose to open a brand-new Checkers Hyper – which, inexplicably, is listed as ‘The Precinct’ – just less than 3km from another Checkers Hyper store at Mall of Africa.
These must be the closest big-box stores owned by a single retailer in the country! The store is absolutely world-class. It has to be one of the best supermarkets in the Southern Hemisphere.
Almost every aspect of the FreshX-format store, aside from a few nitpicky details, takes the very best of Checkers and amplifies it. The open-flow design from the tills into a row of line shops harks back to the ‘Hypermarket’ centres of old, updated for this decade.
It has a Little Me (its baby-focused brand) as a store within the store, and also in the centre is a Checkers Liquorshop and a Petshop Science outlet (tellingly, there is no Outdoor or Uniq, although there is a Pick n Pay Clothing).
Wrong location?
Still, one gets the sense that this Hyper is, perhaps, a little too close to the other at Mall of Africa. The store doesn’t really have a natural catchment area.
The Mall of Africa outlet mops up everything in Waterfall and Kyalami. Not to mention that, additionally, the group has Checkers stores at Kyalami Corner (3.2km away) and at Waterfall Corner (3.5km away).
The first of these was upgraded not too many years ago to the new FreshX format, and it added additional space for general merchandise. Because of the lack of available sites, Checkers has no other stores in Midrand, as a whole.
The Precinct (Mushroom Farm) store opened at the end of October, with a weekend promotion, which is typical when it launches a new supermarket or liquor shop. Then it headed into Black Friday and the peak festive trading period.
In January, it rather strangely, “relaunched” the store, with another two-week promotion, exclusive to that store.
FreshX at its finest
It typically only ‘relaunches’ stores once they have been upgraded to the FreshX format.
Then, in early March, it held a Saturday ‘Market Day’ complete with an outside broadcast from a leading radio station in the province.
While it can defend this as ‘ongoing marketing initiatives’, it is telling that it hasn’t had to do this at other stores.
When visiting this store on that Market Day (after the peak of activities at lunchtime), it was plainly clear what a battle Checkers has to keep its tills busy. Out of dozens of till points, less than 10 were operational which speaks to the clear problem it has – and is going to have – with this store.
On a random weekday at close to lunch, this problem is far, far worse. There are fewer than a handful of till points open.
The staff members in the store easily out-number the customers.
This stands in complete contrast to many, many Checkers Hyper stores across the province (from Sandton City, Mall of Africa and Menlyn; all natural hubs) and other ‘destination’-type stores such as Edenvale and Roodepoort.
And there’s not an awful lot of space for residential construction in the immediate surrounds of Mushroom Farm.
Over time, the area north of Kyalami Corner will continue to densify, as will the stretch down Main Road.
The Hyper will probably grow into the market (and helpfully cannibalise some demand from the very busy Mall of Africa). For the developer, there were probably few other takers for the space.
Pick n Pay is focused entirely on turning itself around and has been closing stores, not opening them (with a few exceptions).
The end of ‘white space’
Now that most of the perceived ‘white space’ has been filled in Gauteng and the Cape (the Hyper at Irene Village will open in August), Shoprite has shifted its strategy for Checkers Hyper stores and is now targeting opportunities in regional centres.
Resilient Reit has confirmed that the Checkers stores at the Tzaneen Lifestyle Centre and at Boardwalk Inkwazi (in Richards Bay) will be expanded and converted to Hypers.
Surely there exists additional opportunities in markets like Polokwane and East London (and maybe even Ballito and Kimberley)? If so, Massmart ought to be worried about the future of their Game stores in these smaller centres…
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.