Did Shoprite open a Checkers Hyper too many?

From a strategic perspective, Shoprite appears to have largely filled major urban ‘white space’ and is now targeting opportunities in regional centres. Image: Moneyweb 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. 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-newCheckers Hyper– which, inexplicably, is listed as ‘The Precinct’ – just less than 3km from another Checkers Hyper store at Mall of Africa.

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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).

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.

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