Checkers little shop is back!

Little Shop items by Checkers is arguably one of the smartest rewards programmes ever launched by a retailer, and it’s back by popular demand, this time featuring 24 new collectable minis.

The charming little shop replica items, launched in 2016, included some of South Africa’s most recognisable brands, like All Gold Tomato Sauce, OMO washing powder and Sunlight Liquid.

This time there’s a new Sixty60 delivery bike, Nescafe Gold, Baby Soft toilet paper, Huggies Gold nappies, Lindt chocolate, Tastic Rice, FutureLife and even Simple Truth plant-based sausages. 

“As part of the supermarket’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, the minis are made from 100% recycled plastic – including discarded refrigerators, water bottles, goggles – as well as FSC-approved, responsibly sourced cardboard and paper. The handy collector’s case is locally made and 100% recyclable,” said Checkers in a statement.

After Checkers launched the mini shop craze, it wasn’t too long before other retailers tried to keep up.

Pick n Pay launched Super Animals, a trading card – Sound Card promotion, while Spar offered shoppers Angry Birds-themed cards – lenticulars.

But, Checkers appeared to dominate with its Little Shop Mini Collectibles.

Judging the success of these types of promotions is difficult without hard sales data (which the retailers will obviously not publish), but judging purely from anecdotal evidence and the sheer number of swap groups, and posts that sprung up on social media, Checkers won that battle hands down.

Back in 2016, customers had to fork out R150 or more to receive one toy. This time Checkers has upped the ante by raising that benchmark to R200. 

“Customers will receive a free Little Shop collectable for every R200 spent in Checkers, Checkers Hyper, Checkers Foods and via Sixty60,” Checkers said.

Any unwanted or duplicate Little Shop collectables can be donated to educational and remedial institutions via special collection boxes in stores. 

The campaign follows Shoprites announcements that it generated an additional R8.3 billion in sales versus the corresponding period to increase sales by 10.0% to R91.1 billion for the 26 weeks ending 2 January 2022.

How Checkers is meeting its recycling goals

• At least 3 800 old refrigerators were used to make 798 000 Simple Truth Raw Honey minis.
• 80 000 pairs of old swimming goggles produced roughly 10 Aquelle minis with each pair of goggles.
• 125 000 x 500ml PET bottles were repurposed into Energizer minis.
• 1x500ml PET bottle makes roughly six Energizer replicas or 10 Oh My Goodness! Spaghetti Bolognaise minis.
• In total, around 38 000 recycled refrigerators, 166 000 pairs of recycled goggles and 210 000 PET bottles were used to create the Checkers Little Shop 3 minis.

Additional reporting by Hilton Tarrant

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