Checkers-Innovation is the name of the game PDF

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Checkers - Innovation is the name of the game “Better and better; this is what we strive for on behalf of the millions of customers who’ve made Checkers a household name since 1956. But what does it really mean to be “better and better”? Well, our track record for pushing boundaries can be traced back to the opening of our maiden store in Mayfair, Johannesburg. As it turned out, that first, humble 38 square meter outlet would become the incubator for many groundbreaking ideas for the then fledgling supermarket.

Today, backed by the biggest food retail group in Africa, we’re able to tap into a wealth of resources that further fuel our innovative spirit and drive to be better and better. The Shoprite Checkers family’s collective mission is to bring products and services to market that delight in both quality and price, and we’re able to do that thanks to a shared commitment to our customers.”

Here’s a brief look at our journey to becoming SA’s most loved retailer: 

1956 Our first store opens in Mayfair, Johannesburg.

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1950s Checkers counters retail price wars with its affordable House Brands.

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1960s We grow from three stores to a chain of 85 stores nationally.

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1968 The first ever locally manufactured trolleys are delivered to Checkers stores.

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1960’s We become the first retail chain store to use high-density polyethylene bags.

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1982 Checkers pioneers the trolley lock system which saves millions in theft.

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1984 Spearheaded a from-home shopping scheme via the South African Post Office.

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1985 We introduce the first card payment system in partnership with Barclays Bank.

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1985 Launches the first grocery delivery system the country has ever seen.

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1986 Introduction of an early version of product price scanning in stores.

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1990 We launch the biggest customer engagement drive by a national retailer.

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1991 Checkers joins the biggest food retail group on the continent, Shoprite Holdings Ltd.

Better and better every time Our efforts in developing products, services and experiences that people love have made the Checkers brand relevant after almost a century of serving the Southern African market. From our much loved steakhouse classics, to our ever-expanding cellar of local and international wines, to our extensive range of award-winning cheeses: we’re proud to be the supermarket of choice for shoppers who enjoy the finer things. But it doesn’t stop there; we make sure every shopper enjoys value for their money by keeping the prices of basic commodities low. In fact, we’ve consistently gone beyond the retail status quo when our customers needed us. When bread prices spiraled

out of control in 1990, for example, we immediately stepped in and subsidized the sale of every loaf of bread at our stores.

Millions of South Africans also enjoy more value for their rand with campaigns like “Trolley for trolley, you won’t pay more at Checkers” and others that routinely slash basic commodity prices for lower income shoppers. These and countless initiatives over the years have earned the Checkers brand a reputation for trust, quality and reliability in times of uncertainty.

Our promise to you We’re always learning how to be a better retailer for you. When Checkers founder, Norman Hertz Herber, cut the ribbon on our first store in Mayfair, it was the culmination of years of learning from what leading retailers all over the world were doing at the time. He also knew the Mayfair store was to be the start of a long road ahead that would see the Checkers brand continually push beyond possible.

We think Norman’s set the bar sufficiently high, and it is in that spirit that we continue the tradition of innovation, customer excellence and products and services that delight. And for us, that’s what it means to be better and better.

Innovations at Shoprite Checkers; A number of innovative new online services recently launched by the Shoprite Group have been making life a whole lot easier. And the good news is, they’re here to stay - even beyond the national lockdown. 

Virtual Vouchers

South Africans who wish to reach out and help those in need can now purchase a virtual grocery voucher. This secure, technology-based solution provides food assistance quickly, efficiently and directly. Virtual vouchers can be bought from Computicket and are sent via SMS to a recipient’s mobile phone within an hour of being purchased. The vouchers are valid for three years and can be redeemed at any Shoprite, Checkers or Usave supermarket nationwide. 

Medicine Delivery

Checkers has teamed up with Mr D Food to deliver medicine to its MediRite Pharmacy customer’ homes. Just phone your nearest MediRite pharmacy (available in selected Checkers stores), place an order and pay for it via EFT, debit card or medical aid. Go to the Mr D Food app, select

“MediRite order for delivery” and place the delivery order. Be sure to follow the delivery tracking updates, as Mr D Food is only able to make the delivery once. 

Rewards Card

If you have a Checkers Xtra rewards card it is probably easily THE BRIGHTEST card in your wallet. Having introduced the rewards card after many other retailers in South Africa Checkers made sure to learn from their competitors errors. The Pick n Pay Shopper Card gives fractions of savings on each purchase, but it seems like a few cents’ worth per product. Checkers offer savings only on SELECTED items, almost like Dischem or Woolworths. At least with Checkers you can choose the discounted items you want to purchase, and the more worthwhile saving runs into a few Rand per item, and not cents as with Pick n Pay. 

Grocery Delivery

Given the surge in demand for online shopping, Checkers now offers customers three different delivery services: 1. Sixty60 Sixty60 delivers groceries at the touch of a button at the same value for money for which Checkers is renowned. Plus with a standard delivery fee of just R35, Sixty60 offers better value than any other grocery delivery service in South Africa. The Sixty60 app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play Store.

2. Sixty60 Boxed Sixty60 Boxed is an additional service, offering bulk same-day delivery of groceries and household supplies. It is a collaboration between Sixty60 and CFS, servicing selected parts of the Western Cape and Gauteng including Stellenbosch, Paarl, Centurion, Pretoria North and Pretoria East.

3. Checkers Food Services (CFS) Customers can also order groceries for home delivery in selected areas of the Western Cape and Gauteng through Checkers Food Services (CFS). The website sells groceries and household items up to 40% cheaper than its physical stores and the official Checkers website. If you spend over R1,000 on the website, CFS will deliver your goods for free within 72 hours, six days a week. Spend anything less, and you’ll have to pay R100 for delivery. You can also pick up your order of any value at a CFS warehouse at no cost.

The largely-unknown division falls under the Checkers Food Services (CFS) brand, and is intended for use by businesses in the restaurant and catering industry. According to Shoprite,

it opened to the general public in 2019 as a way to “reduce the barriers for individuals and small to mid-size enterprises in the sector”. The online store sells over 8,000 products, including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, alcohol, household cleaning products, and coffee beans. There are also several Checkers house brand items available. In general, the prices at CFS are lower than those found in Checkers. But because this is an online shop geared towards businesses, there are some catches - including that you must reside in Gauteng or the Western Cape.

Most products are only available in bulk. There are also some anomalies with the prices. Some items become more expensive after registering and logging in - Shoprite says this is due to the site’s inability “to accurately determine the shopper’s location” while browsing anonymously. Equally confusing is that none of products listed on the site include VAT - and there’s no disclaimer to point this out. CFS only adds VAT during the final checkout phase, which means many of the great deals turn out to be mediocre ones - at the very last step. Shoprite says they are “in the process of adding a disclaimer to the website to assist in clarifying this to users”. The product range is also geared more towards restaurant owners than household users. And, strangely, some products are more expensive on the CFS website than anywhere else - including traditional Checkers stores.

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FinTech

Checkers money market Conveniently situated in your nearest Checkers store, Money Market is your one-stop service that takes care of all your money matters. Whether you need to do money transfers, top up your data, airtime or electricity, purchase a gift card or savings stamps, buy tickets, or even take out insurance – you can do it all at Checkers.

What’s more? We have a range of online services for you to choose from. Just another way we make managing your money matters easier. Visit your nearest Checkers or Shoprite store and present your original green book or card ID to our teller with the amount you wish to transfer. Select a 4-digit PIN number for your Money Market transfer number and complete your transfer. Visit your nearest participating outlet with your green book or card ID to collect any amount of up to R5000 per day. Note, you can collect a total of R25000 per month from our Money Market counters. Provide the teller with the Money Market transfer and PIN number you received from the sender and collect your money.

The Checkers Money Market allows you to transfer and receive money from friends and family. The Money Market is a convenient service that’s designed to reduce waiting times and expensive transfer fees. At R9.99 per transfer, requiring no forms and no FICA process the Checkers Money Market services available through their app can play a big role in South Africa where access to a cell phone exceeds formal bank accounts.

A closer look at Sixty60 In November 2019 Checkers launched its exclusive on-demand one-hour grocery delivery service named Sixty60. It is South Africa’s first 60-minute grocery delivery service from a supermarket chain, as Checkers relentlessly innovates to respond to customers’ demands for hyperconvenience. The mobile app delivers groceries and drinks at the touch of a button and offers the same value for money for which Checkers is renowned.

Users can track the status of their order and delivery in real time. “Sixty60 will offer unrivalled convenience because it does all the hard work for you. In our time-pressed society, providing consumers with a swift, on-demand grocery delivery service is like giving them back time: today’s most precious commodity.” Neil Schreuder, Chief of Innovation and Strategy at Shoprite Checkers

Following months of testing the Sixty60 app with its own employees, it was piloted to the public in select locations in Cape Town and Sandton before being rolled out on a larger scale. As an incentive for potential customers to participate in the pilot program, delivery was absolutely free for the pilot period. “The name Sixty60 captures the service’s main ambition: for customers to order groceries in sixty seconds and have them delivered in as little as sixty minutes.” It is important to note that Checkers did not develop an online shopping platform through their website. Their approach to innovation was to focus fully on m-commerce (mobile commerce) by developing Sixty60 only as an app.

This is what the checkers website says about sixty 60: Introducing Checkers Sixty60 - South Africa's fastest grocery delivery service! Download the Checkers Sixty60 app and place an order in as little as 60 seconds. We don't have a website to shop online. For your convenience, Sixty60 delivers 7 days a week – so you never have to worry about running low on groceries again. Save time and get your groceries delivered for a R35 flat fee. Sixty60 is available in selected areas only.

Only a year after its pilot and launch Sixty60 the won the BCX Digital Innovation Awards in 2020. The awards were established to recognise digital innovation excellence in South Africa, focusing on corporates and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). In 2020, 28 shortlisted candidates pitched their work to five judges in the hopes of achieving the title of Digital Innovation Award champion in their respective categories.

The victor in the corporate category of the BCX Digital Innovation Awards was Checkers' Sixty60 app, which lets customers shop quickly, in less than a minute, and have their groceries delivered within an hour. Andy Ridge, e-commerce manager at the Shoprite group, spoke to Gary Alfonso about the idea behind the Sixty60 app and how Covid-19 worked in the retailer's favour: “We weren't trying to implement an online shopping platform for Checkers,” said Ridge, as such platforms had become synonymous with hard-to-navigate websites and long delivery lead times. “We wanted to totally disrupt the online grocery market in SA.”

On the effect of Covid-19, he says Checkers has been lucky, as the pandemic and ensuring lockdown gave a shot in the arm to online deliveries, especially of groceries. “As a result, our order volumes have grown terrifically.” The grocer also created a “couple of thousand” jobs along the way, Ridge said.

Has it all been smooth sailing? What do customers have to say on Hallopeter about Sixty60? Hellopeter is a platform connecting South African consumers and businesses. They allow consumers to share their experiences (whether good or bad), read about other people's experiences, and hopefully, discover some great South African businesses along the way. Importantly customers can post their complaints and companies can monitor the site and respond speedily –giving them the opportunity to manage their customer expectations NN

Unhappy customer

21 Jan 2020, 14:38 Checkers Sixty60 is a SCAM!!!! About 2 weeks ago I discovered the Cherckers Sixty60 app. It basically promises to deliver your groceries in 60 minutes. I ordered my groceries and I was charged almost twice the grocery amount. They promised that the amount would be reversed into my account and I am still waiting. The consultant have been giving me the run around, I have probably spoken to 10x who have all promised to come back to me with a resolution. Please rather use woolworths because this is a scam. I will reverse the transaction and get my money back. SB The first pre authorization was reversed within a day. The second 2 I am now waiting more than 10 days. They blame it on my bank and Checkers smile all the way scoring interest on my money. Will never recommend or use it again Like · Reply · 2w MO Checkers 60 in sixty have to many extra cost. Like · Reply · 4w MMN NN I decided to use the app last week since i wasnt feeling well. I had the exact same exprience as you. The pineapples and pack of lemons were green with mould. The potatoes were soft. I have been trying to report the problem since the weekend and nobody has gotten back to me. The EXTRA funds were also reservered for "In case" but never reversed. I will never use this app again. I also believe its a scam and would much rather pay the extra and purchase from Wollworths where u get quality. Like · Reply · 1 · 10w VLLM had the same thing happen to me R250 difference

Like · Reply · 1 · 12w

ZV I’m still waiting for my preauthorisation fee Checkers!!! Like · Reply · 1 · 13w GB Be careful of using this 60 minutes system. Our cost was just over R400 but we were charged an extra R60 for just in case. They now say it takes 7 working days to do a refund. They are making a killing with the interest from us. Plus takes 2 hours and not 60 minutes Like · Reply · 1 · 16w EVDB I have discovered this too. I just ut checked my bank statements now to see whether the refunds were actually done and not one in sight. I just ordered now and received my goods but at much lower prices than I paid for, I have taken photos of all goods as I cannot overlook this Like · Reply · 1 · 17w AL I have realised that checkers Have been charging me 15% high than then actual price and they never refund the funds. This is my 4th time usually their Sixty60 app and the experience is the same. Pnp refund within 3 day. Their customer service is bad Like · Reply · 2 · 17w AD Every single order I have placed with Sixty60 has been a disaster. I literally just paid R50 for a 2l cooldrink...no communication beforehand about stock, as I would have cancelled had I known I would only be getting one bottle! Previous orders were also met with this pathetic level of service, either half of what I order actually arrives (at most) with refunds taking weeks or not showing up on the day of order, even if ordered the morning. My advice to all, stick to your smaller local stores and call them to enquire if they deliver. I bet they would be happy to help you and provide a service of a mush higher standard than Sixty60. If the smaller businesses near to you do not deliver, PnP and Woolworths delivery service of a much higher standard than Sixty60. Like · Reply · 49w HMN It is definitely a scam i was charged for the items that were not delivered and never got my refund Like · Reply · 51w LG This app should be shut down and they should not be aloud to operate. I purchased goods on 20 April and was overcharged by more than 30%. Still unable to get refunded. Like · Reply · 1y

Despite these posts taking place in January 2020 Checkers does not seem to be actively monitoring Hallopeter and have not replied directly to any of the above queries to resolve them. To put this in perspective, by March 2021 the app had more than 1 million downloads and had won “best delivery app design” by Stuff Magazine in 2020. What do these achievements mean in context of the 22 unanswered complaints on Hallopeter?

How Checkers quietly won the delivery app wars Toby Shapshank the editor of Stuff Magazine in SA wrote the following opinion piece: “I didn’t really believe that Checkers would actually take sixty minutes to deliver the groceries I had just ordered, but I was happy to get them on the same day.

I’d heard people raving about the new Sixty60 app even before that economic elephant called the Covid-19 lockdown that trampled on us. But the reason I had downloaded it was because I’d seen the advert in the Daily Maverick newspaper. Not only was I pleased to see the launch of a new newspaper (a good democracy needs all the voices it can get), but a decent share of advertising, including a rather cheeky Checkers ad in a newspaper sold exclusively through Pick ‘n Pay stores. I like a good (digital) underdog. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how thoroughly good Checker’s new app is.

Firstly, it does take the advertised time. That alone was noteworthy. But the most enjoyable thing is how slick the m-commerce interface is. As a long-time online shopper, I’ve been beta tested by everyone since Amazon. Some mobile apps are, well, frustrating. The interface isn’t optimized properly for mobile, so buying something, or adding it to a wish list, can require multiple click0throughs to individual pages, then back. Again. And again. ‘Appy with Checkers What a joy that Sixty60 lets you add a product or change the number you’re buying or delete it right next to the search result. It’s resulted in a much smoother, less time-wasting experience. I’ve watched how the app has evolved over the last few months. The latest iteration offered a helpful option to select an alternative (this is a broad cate...