Checkers’ “cheaper to use Sixty60” claim tested

Testing by MyBroadband revealed that it is cheaper to use Checkers’ Sixty60 eCommerce service than driving to the shop yourself to buy groceries.

Checkers claimed that the petrol price hike means it is cheaper to have groceries delivered than paying for travel costs to one of its stores.

According to Checkers, the average Sixty60 customer saves 33% on fuel and vehicle running costs by shopping via the app and paying the R35 delivery fee.

The retailer said South Africa’s top-selling passenger vehicles cost R7.01 per kilometre to run, and the average return journey for a Sixty60 delivery is 7.5 kilometres.

“If a customer made this trip, it would cost them R52.57. Compared to Sixty60’s R35 delivery fee, this realises a saving of R17.57 per trip,” Checkers said.

Checkers did not comment on the price for food in its app versus the in-store prices.

MyBroadband conducted a real-world test by ordering a basket of goods from the app and then driving to the shop and checking for any difference in prices between the app and in-store.

For our trip, we used a Volvo SUV, which, according to the AA, costs R5.26/km to run. The return trip distance is 9.8 km which translates into travel costs of R51.55.

The experiment revealed that all the prices in the store were identical to the prices on the app.

The test, therefore, confirmed that using Checkers Sixty60 to deliver items is cheaper than driving to a shop and buying them yourself.

Checkers Sixty60 experience

We placed our Checkers Sixty60 order at 7:44 but were alerted that the next possible delivery to the office was only at 11:00 before we checked out.

The order arrived at 10:27, which is quicker than what was promised on the app. However, it was significantly longer than the original promise of 60 minutes.

Checkers Sixty60 also only supports orders of up to 30 items at a time, which means that a consumer with a large shopping list would have to pay for delivery more than once.

(Update: In the days after this article was published, Checkers increased its maximum item limit to 35.)

Having your groceries delivered can save you time and money, especially for small baskets.

The exception would be if you have a long list of groceries and live relatively close to a Checkers store.

Summary

Now read: Checkers Sixty60 versus Pick n Pay asap! — impressive results