The 60/60 Evolution in South Africa: How On-Demand Grocery Delivery Became a Lifestyle
- Karen Scheepers
- Jul 16
- 6 min read
A Revolution at Your Doorstep
It’s a familiar scene in South Africa’s suburbs today: on a typical afternoon school run, you might spot several teal-colored motorbikes zipping past, insulated boxes on the back emblazoned with “groceries delivered in 60 minutes.” These speedy two-wheelers are the hallmark of Checkers Sixty60, the on-demand grocery delivery service that has taken the country by storm.
Launched in late 2019, Checkers Sixty60 promised to let customers order groceries in 60 seconds and receive them in about 60 minutes, a tagline now literally visible on the streets. Sixty60’s couriers have become ubiquitous on city roads, racing to meet tight delivery deadlines. The service’s convenience has not only changed daily routines for millions, but even captured imaginations: children have been spotted play-acting as Sixty60 drivers, inspiring Checkers to release toy delivery bikes for its “little fans” shopriteholdings.co.za. It’s clear that on-demand grocery delivery has evolved from novelty to normality in South Africa, reshaping how people shop.
Checkers Sixty60 scooters have become a frequent sight on South African roads, sporting branded delivery boxes promising groceries in 60 minutes. These motorbike couriers are the backbone of the on-demand grocery revolution.
How Checkers Sixty60 Became a Hit
Sixty60’s rise to popularity was perfectly timed. The service launched in November 2019, just months before Covid-19 hit and South Africa entered lockdown news.sap.com. Initially operating in only a few areas of Johannesburg and Cape Town, Sixty60 was one of the right ideas at the right time, as soon as movement was restricted, demand for home delivery of essentials surged.
Stuck at home, consumers discovered they could, from the comfort of their couch, tap a few buttons on the Sixty60 app and have a full grocery order appear at their door within an hour. They could even send groceries to relatives in another town just as easily, bridging distances with a digital helping hand. This unrivaled convenience and time-saving appeal helped Sixty60 gain a devoted user base, even after lockdowns lifted. Shoppers had gotten a taste of the future and didn’t want to go back to old ways.
The numbers tell the story of Sixty60’s success. Within 18 months of launch, it became the #1 grocery shopping app in the country with over 1 million downloads. By December 2023, the app had been downloaded more than 4.5 million times as it expanded service to over 500 supermarkets nationwide news.sap.com. (For context, South Africa’s population is ~60 million, so these are enormous adoption figures.) As of 2024, Sixty60 surpassed 5 million downloads, cementing its status as South Africa’s top delivery app supplynetwork-africa.co.za.
Sales on the platform have continued to soar, growing by 58% year-on-year in the 2024 financial period, defying early predictions that interest would fade once in-person shopping resumed. Instead, the habit of ordering groceries online in a pinch is now firmly ingrained. Shoppers love that “Sixty60 does all the hard work for you”, as Checkers advertises, letting them avoid traffic jams and checkout queues while still getting what they need quickly.
Convenience and Culture: Why It’s So Popular
At its heart, the appeal of 60-minute grocery delivery comes down to convenience and time saved. In a fast-paced, time-pressed society, having groceries arrive at your door shortly after you order is almost like magic. Need ingredients for dinner but tied up with work calls? No problem, a Sixty60 driver will fetch them while you finish your meeting.
Realize your elderly parent in another town is low on pantry staples? Just order on the app and have it sent to their address. This level of service was unheard of a few years ago in South Africa.
Now, many people wonder how they lived without it. As one retail executive noted, home delivery itself isn’t new, milkmen and other services existed decades ago, but smartphone apps have supercharged the concept, making ordering “as easy as texting” and far more instantaneous. The result is an experience so frictionless that it quickly turns first-time users into regular customers.
During the pandemic, online grocery apps were a lifeline; post-pandemic, they’ve become a lifestyle. It doesn’t hurt that Checkers Sixty60 cultivated a fun, energetic brand, from its tongue-in-cheek name to live driver tracking and bright branding, turning mundane grocery runs into something a bit more exciting. The cultural impact is evident in those viral social media moments: a little boy so obsessed with the “Sixty60 man” that he had a Checkers-themed birthday party, or toddlers zooming on toy bikes pretending to beat the 60-minute clock. Sixty60 has made grocery delivery cool, and that’s a marketing win in itself.
On the practical side, the reliability and innovation of the service have built trust. Checkers invested in robust logistics, every order is fulfilled from a local Checkers or Checkers Hyper store by dedicated pickers, then handed to a fleet of motorcycle couriers equipped with insulated boxes. Advanced software (developed in partnership with local startup Zulzi) allocates orders efficiently to drivers and even handles tricky issues like real-time substitutions for out-of-stock items.
The result is a remarkably fast turnaround: many customers report getting their groceries well under the promised hour. Checkers even introduced a delivery “time guarantee”, if an order arrives more than 30 minutes late, or if too many items were out of stock, the delivery fee is waived as a courtesy techcentral.co.za. Such policies signal to users that the company is confident in its service and willing to make things right if ever it slips. All these factors, speed, ease of use, reliability, and a bit of goodwill, combined with the circumstances of 2020, created the perfect storm for Sixty60 to flourish.
The Logistics: Behind the 60-Minute Promise
Delivering groceries so quickly at scale required serious logistical muscle. Over the past few years, the Shoprite Group (which owns Checkers) has poured resources into expanding and fine-tuning the Sixty60 operation. What started in a handful of urban stores is now a massive network spanning 505 stores nationwide by 2023. Essentially, each participating Checkers supermarket doubles as a mini fulfillment center for Sixty60 orders, with staff pickers racing through aisles to assemble orders the moment they come in.
The company’s digital arm, ShopriteX, has optimized the process with tech solutions, from managing stock catalogs to plotting delivery routes. Most deliveries are handled by motorcycle or scooter, ideal for weaving through traffic and reaching homes quickly. (Notably, despite global trends towards electric bikes, Checkers has indicated it’s “not going electric, for now,” sticking with its current petrol bike fleet due to infrastructure constraints mybroadband.co.za.)
To keep up with demand, the fleet of drivers has grown dramatically, though exact numbers aren’t public, one partner firm (Zulzi) reported having 300 drivers just for certain regions, and the total nationwide is likely far higher. Those teal-and-white Sixty60 cooler boxes now roam virtually every suburb of major cities, and even mid-sized towns have joined the 60-minute delivery club as the service’s footprint expands.
In short, the 60/60 model has rapidly evolved, from a convenient way to get bread and milk, into a backbone of modern retail logistics. And its success is reshaping the entire industry.
A Neutral View from the Front Lines
From a neutral journalistic perspective, the 60/60 on-demand delivery revolution in South Africa represents a fascinating intersection of technology, consumer behavior, and industry competition. In just a few short years, on-demand grocery services have gone from zero to ubiquity, profoundly influencing the retail sector’s growth and logistics.
South Africa’s delivery ecosystem now ranges from corporate-backed innovations to nimble township solutions, illustrating how necessity and opportunity drove innovation even in an emerging market context. Analysts note that this trend was catalyzed by the pandemic but is sustained by convenience.
Retail chains are investing heavily in digital platforms and last-mile infrastructure, which has side benefits like new employment opportunities (delivery drivers, pickers) and potential future innovations (such as electric vehicles or drone deliveries down the line, once feasible).
There are also challenges: logistics costs and thin margins mean these services must reach scale and efficiency to turn profits, and safety concerns (like the risk of driver robberies or road accidents) have become part of the conversation. Regulators and city planners are starting to pay attention, gig worker protections, traffic patterns, and even urban planning might need adjustments as the delivery economy grows.
Yet, despite these serious angles, it’s undeniable that South Africans have embraced the convenience with gusto. The sight of a Checkers Sixty60 bike darting off to its next stop or a Spar2U van navigating a dusty township road is now simply part of everyday life. It speaks to a broader lifestyle shift: people value their time, and retailers are racing to help them save more of it. As one industry observer quipped, “on-demand is the new normal, we’re all a bit spoiled now”.
Whether you’re a parent ordering weekly groceries, a student getting late-night study snacks delivered, or an office worker sending a care package to family, the 60-minute delivery revolution has you covered.
And it’s still evolving, competition will likely drive faster, cheaper, and more innovative services in the coming years. For now, though, the consensus is that Sixty60 and its peers have permanently changed the South African retail landscape, injecting a healthy dose of convenience and choice.
The next time you see three delivery bikes whizz by in the span of a minute, you’ll know: that’s the 60/60 evolution in action, and it’s here to stay.
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