Checkers has reduced the footprint of its existing Hypers and ensured new ones are more efficient, moving away from the oversized formats of yesteryear. Picture: Moneyweb The pace at which the Shoprite Group has expanded its larger-format Checkers Hyper footprint over the last decade has left its main rival in this segment, Pick n Pay, trailing far behind. Between 2015 and 2025, the number of Checkers Hypers grew from 33 stores to 40, which is roughly double the number of Pick n Pay Hypermarkets in the country.
In that same period, Pick n Pay added two stores, to get to a total of 22. To get there, Shoprite Group has needed to add an average of one a year, although its additions have been lumpier, often with a few openings in the same year. In the last financial year (between July 2024 to June 2025), it actually added three new Hyper stores but also shut one.
Shoprite has been incredibly successful at finding so-called ‘white space’ – locations where it can open larger stores in the metros and larger cities. The most recent Checkers Hyper opening has been at the Mushroom Farm Centre on Allandale Road in Midrand. There’s really not much around in that node, save for Attacq’s Mall of Africa Hyper, less than 4km down the road.
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Still, the two offers are almost completely different in terms of access and offering. That store opened at the end of October. Pick n Pay has been far less successful, with a mostly static store estate for Hypers.
In the 2024 financial year (to end-February 2024), Pick n Pay shut one Hypermarket and converted one of its supermarkets. That shuttered store, located in the Vaal, was closed in late 2023. That closure was completely unrelated to the store estate reset programme announced by CEO Sean Summers in 2024.
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