International retail giant with lower prices than Checkers and Pick n Pay

A Daily Investor price comparison between Walmart, Checkers, and Pick n Pay showed that the international giant was cheaper when it came to certain items compared to the local retailers.

Walmart is hoping to differentiate itself from the strong competitors in South Africa based on price, employing its ‘Every Day Low Prices’ strategy to attract customers.

Walmart first announced plans to launch in South Africa in September 2025, explaining that it will offer a variety of locally sourced products, as well as some international goods.

It should be noted that Walmart’s local subsidiary, Massmart, has had a presence in South Africa for years, through its Makro and Game stores.

However, in November 2025, South Africa’s first Walmart-branded store opened at Clearwater Mall, and today the brand has three stores in Gauteng.

It recently confirmed plans to launch 21 more stores in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape.

There has been some speculation that Walmart will rapidly expand its footprint over the coming years by converting existing Game stores.

In February 2026, MyBroadband reported that around 20 Game stores across South Africa are set to be closed, adding fuel to the speculation.

The retailer has been clear in saying this is not part of its rollout plan, emphasising that it will not close down the Game business completely.

However, it revealed to the publication that it converted existing Game stores into Walmarts to enable the American brand to accelerate its rollout. 

This indicates that Massmart is willing to flip Game stores into Walmarts to “move at speed” and achieve scale.

Competing in South Africa’s food retail market will be an uphill battle, and the global retailer will need every advantage at its disposal if it hopes to take on local giants like Shoprite and Pick n Pay.

For context, while Walmart’s three stores are a good start, it puts it nowhere near Shoprite’s over 638 Checkers-branded stores, or Pick n Pay’s 999 supermarkets in South Africa.

However, physical footprint is not the be-all and end-all of retail anymore, with retailers now also competing on convenience and on-demand delivery dominance.

In this regard, Walmart has already made a move, launching online express delivery within an 8km radius of all its stores, aiming to take on Shoprite’s Sixty60 and Pick n Pay’s asap! services.

While the American retailer still has a long way to go to match local players in these respects, it hopes that one distinct offering will help it stand out from the rest – Every Day Low Prices.

Local retailers’ strategy

Walmart’s Every Day Low Prices strategy has become the retailer’s key advantage in most of the markets it has expanded into in recent years.

To understand how this strategy works, it is important to first understand how most South African retailers’ model differs.

While local retailers aim to keep their prices as low as possible to attract customers, they do so by implementing discounts and other promotional activities, with the aim of driving foot traffic and sales.

Historically, this has worked well for them, as South Africa’s price-sensitive consumers are heavily attracted to discounts and are therefore likely to shop around for the best deal, regardless of which retailer they end up patronising.

However, this strategy also has a distinct disadvantage, as customer loyalty is not necessarily guaranteed, and sales depend on which retailer is offering the best deal at any given time.

In addition, retailers’ ability to offer discounts and promotions depends heavily on their ability to achieve economies of scale for a given product.

In other words, if Checkers wants to discount a 2-litre bottle of milk, it needs to ensure it sells enough of the product to justify the lower price.

As discounts and promotions have become the norm, with various retailers running promotions at the same time, it is not necessarily the case that Shoprite, in this example, will sell its discounted products in high volume.

This potentially undermines the benefits of economies of scale that enable retailers to run regular discounts and promotions.

Walmart’s play

These are the problems Walmart is looking to solve with its Every Day Low Prices strategy, which, instead of offering regular discounts and promotions, relies on simply keeping prices low, day in and day out. 

In doing so, the American retailer hopes to build a loyal client base that knows they can come to a Walmart store at any time of the month or year, and is guaranteed to find some of the lowest prices possible.

In other words, the idea is that Walmart customers do not have to wait for a sale, patronise different retailers, collect rewards points, or only shop during high-promotion periods. 

Instead, they can shop at the same store on a regular basis to get the best possible price.

It should be noted that this does not mean Walmart offers no discounts on its products, with the retailer running some promotions. Instead, it means its model does not rely on discounts to attract customers.

On paper, this sounds like a win-win strategy – customers get low prices and only need to go to one store, and Walmart gets a loyal client base that is also more likely to shop big and buy everything they need in one trip.

However, this strategy is not without its drawbacks either, as it relies heavily on Walmart’s ability to keep its prices low year-round, which is not always possible.

It requires immense scale, something Walmart currently lacks in South Africa, and the buy-in of local customers, who are used to existing retailers’ discount models.

Sasfin senior equity analyst Alec Abraham previously told Daily Investor that he is sceptical of Walmart’s ability to take on local retail giants like Shoprite and Pick n Pay.

“Just like Massmart’s half-baked, Johnny-come-lately, failed attempt with Cambridge, Walmart lacks the distribution network,” Abraham said.

“In food retail, convenience is important, as demonstrated by the success of Sixty60 with the ultimate convenience (the palm of your hand).”

Abraham also noted that the retail market in South Africa is highly competitive, with Walmart facing competition across all segments. 

“You’ve got strong competition in the form of Woolworths Food – with its excellent shopping experience, quality and innovative range – and Shoprite – executing flawlessly – and even the laggard Pick n Pay trying gallantly to win back at least some of its lost market share,” he said.

However, it is still early days for the American giant in South Africa, and based on a recent price comparison conducted by Daily Investor, it appears as though Walmart is sticking to its Every Day Low Prices strategy for the time being.

The price comparison in the table below shows that, for the products listed, Walmart is significantly cheaper than Checkers and Pick n Pay.

This comparison was done on Friday, 20 March, and did not take any discounts into account, even though all three retailers offered promotions on some products on the list.

Product	Walmart	Checkers	Pick n Pay
Clover Full Cream Milk Fresh 2l	R29.95	R36.99	R35.99
Steri Stumpie Strawberry 350 ml	R15.95	R17.99	R18.99
Blue Ribbon sliced white bread 700g	R15.95	R19.99	R19.99
BRM Pork Loin Rib 1kg	R199.00	R239.99	R209.99
Sprite Soft Drink Can 6 x 300ml	R71.45	R89.99	R86.49
Bakers ProVita Biscuits 500g	R63.64	R74.99	R74.99
Bakers Red Label Biscuits Lemon 200g	R23.47	R29.99	R29.99
Nestlé KitKat 4-Finger Milk 41.5g	R14.78	R16.99	R15.99
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes 1kg	R78.95	R87.99	R87.99
Bokomo Weet-Bix 450g	R34.73	R37.99	R35.99
Dairymaid Country Fresh Ice Cream Vanilla 1.8l	R75.46	R79.99	R79.99
McCain Fry Chips 900g	R46.95	R49.99	R49.99
I&J Fish Fingers 600g	R79.95	R84.99	R84.99
Total	R750.23	R867.87	R831.37