{"id":613481,"date":"2025-10-09T06:58:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=613481"},"modified":"2025-10-09T07:30:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:30:59","slug":"secret-makro-plan-in-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/613481-secret-makro-plan-in-south-africa-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Secret Makro plan in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Massmart has been quiet about its plans to convert its Game stores located in malls to small-format Makro stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company recently announced the upcoming launch of the first Walmart stores in South Africa and said it would consider developing both new and existing sites where appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband asked Massmart for an update about its plans to convert in-mall Game stores into small-format Makro outlets, but it hadn’t answered our questions by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massmart first revealed its plans to convert four existing Game stores<\/a> inside malls to small Makro outlets in April 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group corporate affairs head Brian Leroni said the plan was for the Makro outlets to replace these Game stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They will be situated in the Game store site, but the stores will be merchandised and branded as a small concept 3,000-square-meter Makro store,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We would like to emphasise that our objective is to make Makro stores more accessible to a wider market through a small, mall-based Makro store concept.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, he said the concept’s development was at an advanced stage and had been tested with various focus groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the project stalled thereafter. In subsequent updates following the initial announcements, Massmart said the project was “progressing well”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also said it would invite some partners to preview the stores before they open. It never revealed where the pilot stores would launch, despite saying it would announce the locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in early September 2025, Walmart, the parent company of Massmart, announced its plans to open its first branded stores in South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said the move underscored its commitment to making high-quality, affordable merchandise accessible to more customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walmart International President and CEO Kath McLay said the South African stores will offer a wide range of products, including groceries, household essentials, apparel, and technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will offer a variety of locally sourced products, including those from small and medium-sized suppliers it secured during the Walmart Growth Summit in South Africa in April 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a replacement for Game or Makro<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The first Walmart Spark (Walmart’s logo) put up in a Walmart store on South African soil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Following the announcement that Walmart would launch stores in South Africa, MyBroadband enquired about Massmart’s plans for the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massmart said Walmart will be included under its existing business portfolio as an additional trading banner. This means it won’t replace<\/a> any of Massmart’s existing brands: Builders, Game, and Makro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our focus is on delivering an Every Day Low Price proposition that is in contrast to a Hi-Lo promotional approach to pricing,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also asked whether the plans to convert in-mall Game stores were related to the upcoming Walmart launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will consider developing both new sites, and where appropriate, sites in our existing real estate portfolio,” Massmart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walmart has been successful in emerging markets, such as Mexico and China. It is banking on its renowned low prices to lure cost-conscious South African shoppers<\/a> to its stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many South African shoppers are familiar with the Walmart name and expect the stores to offer affordable, high-quality products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about the upcoming launch, Babitha Ramnarain, practice manager at Johannesburg law firm TKCL, said that South Africans switching to Walmart will depend on its product pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africans are shoppers,” she said. “Everyone is looking for a bargain. So switching to Walmart will depend on price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evan Walker, a manager at 36ONE Asset Management in Cape Town, said Walmart was testing its brand recognition through a handful of stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They can then decide whether to pull the existing Massmart brands under the Walmart brand and try resurrect a new business on the back of that,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Massmart has gone quiet on its plans to convert Game stores in South African malls into small-format Makro outlets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":533883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[70768,91247,8967,101414,849,5514,11665],"class_list":["post-613481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-brian-leroni","tag-evan-walker","tag-game","tag-kath-mclay","tag-makro","tag-massmart","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":613537,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613481\/revisions\/613537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}