On the day the Walmart store opened, foot count was about 85 000 compared to the average 37 000 on Saturdays.
The day of the opening of Walmart’s first South African store saw a surge in numbers of people visiting Clearwater Mall in Roodepoort, Gauteng.
Walmart is an American retail store. Walmart is sister company to South Africa’s popular stores such as Game, Builder’s Warehouse and Makro.
The first Walmart store was opened on 22 November, with the second opening at Fourways Mall on 28 November.
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People come out in numbers for Walmart
According to Clearwater Mall’s owner, Hyprop Investments, the mall saw a massive increase to 85 000 people visiting on the Saturday Walmart was opening.
The company released its operational update for the four months ended 31 October 2025 on Monday.
“A highlight for Clearwater Mall during this period was the launch of the first Walmart-branded store in Africa, which began trading on 22 November,” read the update.
“On the day the Walmart store opened, foot count was circa 85 000 compared to the average 37 000 on Saturdays.”
Walmart among other new stores
Hyprop Investments’ operational update outlined that Walmart is among other new store openings and revamps that happened during the period.
“Other new store openings included Uniq, Hey Dude and Value Co, while Refinery and Sterns were revamped,” said the company.
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“Porter and Craft and Side Step relocated to new premises. Upcoming store openings include Legends Barber, Drip 4 Life, Steers and Debonairs.
“Significant projects completed in the period were the replacement of the Nu Metro escalator and upgrades to the bathrooms. A project to introduce an e-hailing waiting area at the centre is underway.”
‘Everyday low prices’
Walmart’s slogan is “Save Money. Live better”, with “Every Day Low Prices” being the core philosophy that makes the slogan a reality.
Ahead of the official opening of the first store, it put to the test “everyday low prices” by comparing the total outcome of basic groceries bought from SA’s popular retailers.
While it did not specify which retailers it used for the comparison, Walmart came out as the cheapest retailer of the three. It is worth noting that the other two stores offer loyalty rewards programmes, but despite this, they were still more expensive than Walmart.
Competitor one had a total of R1 713, and without promotions, the total would have been R1 895. The second competitor had a total of R1 868, and without promotions would have been R1 901. Walmart’s total was R1 680.
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