We always said that if Shoprite gets enough usage on grocery delivery, it’d be smart to start expanding into other goods.

And now, Checkers has added prebuilt desktop gaming PCs to its Sixty60 on-demand delivery app. The computers are supplied by PCBuilder, part of technology distributor Syntech, and are delivered in the same Suzuki Eeco vans Checkers uses for its Hyper service for larger items, rather than the motorcycles that carry groceries. Availability depends on location, since not every Checkers Hyper store holds stock.

Three systems were listed at launch, all built on AMD Ryzen 5 5000-series processors with 16GB of memory and Windows 11 Home:

These are budget builds on AMD's older AM4 platform, aimed at first-time and casual gamers rather than enthusiasts. Sixty60 also sells keyboards, mice, headsets, consoles, monitors, smartphones and tablets in its electronics category. The PCs are part of a broader push.

Sixty60 grew sales 34.5% to R25.5 billion in Shoprite's last financial year, and adding big-ticket electronics raises the average order value of every delivery it makes. MyBroadband notes TakealotNOW already offers a wide electronics range through partner stores and its own dark stores, aiming to deliver within an hour.

MyBroadband's Hanno Labuschagne spotted the listings and published the full specifications for each build, noting the Sixty60 app itself did not show all the details and that PCBuilder lists the complete configurations on its own site. MyBroadband has separately tested TakealotNOW's one-hour electronics delivery and reported being impressed with the turnaround.

The interesting part is not the PCs; it is where they are sold. Sixty60 started as a way to get groceries in an hour. It now carries consoles, phones and full desktop computers, and it has a separate van fleet to move them. That puts it on Takealot's home ground at the same time as TakealotNOW is moving onto Checkers' ground with one-hour delivery.

The two biggest local online retailers are turning into the same business from opposite ends. Sixty60's advantage is frequency: people open it every week for food, so every new category reaches a customer who is already there.

For suppliers like PCBuilder, that is a channel with traffic no specialist tech store can match. It also fits how SA online retail reached a tenth of all retail turnover: the platforms that win are the ones people already use daily.

You might also like our piece on Shoprite's market cap doubling off Sixty60, Shoprite buying Vida e Caffè, and Pixie Smart Chat inside Sixty60.

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