First Checkers 'dark store' to open doors soon Checkers plans to open its first "dark store" later this year to support growing demand for its Sixty60 on-demand grocery app. A dark store is a retail outlet that exists exclusively to support on-demand deliveries. It does not have a store front or retail customers, but purely assists with order fulfilment. It will be in Bree Street in Cape Town's central business district, and comes as the group considers the capacity of its store base to meet the growing demand from SA's leading grocery app. The Checkers Sixty60 one-hour delivery service was launched in November 2019 and order volumes continue to grow exponentially. It is already available in 300 locations across the country - up from 233 locations last year. About 23 000 products are on offer at in-store prices and it has created almost 6 300 jobs, according to Checkers. The need for such a store format is due to Checkers limiting the number of Sixty60 deliveries it can support from each retail store, which is necessary to avoid inconveniencing in-store customers. The growing number of Checkers Sixty60 orders will, therefore, be complemented through dark stores. Checkers forms part of the Shoprite group, SA's largest grocer. Group CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said during a radio interview with 702's The Money Show earlier this week that Cape Town's southern suburbs is an example of where the group is under-represented. It is one of four areas in the country earmarked for the opening of a Checkers Sixty60 dark store. He did not name the other areas. Checkers Sixty60 forms part of the Shoprite group's "re-platformed" business strategy of which physical stores remain the centre, but with the ability to build alternative sources of income around it, according to Engelbrecht. On Tuesday the Shoprite group announced it is paying out a record R3.54 billion to shareholders for its 2022 financial year - R6 a share. Merchandise sales grew 9.6% to R184 billion in the year to 3 July and profits jumped 21.5% to R5.73 billion. The group had market share gains worth R6.2 billion for its SA business, with Checker Sixty60 growing its sales by 150%.

Adapted from source: Smith C. 2022. First Checkers 'dark store' to open doors soon, News24, 08 September 2022. [Online]. Available at: https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/firstcheckers-dark-store-to-open-doors-soon-20220908 [Accessed 18 October 2022].

question:

There are various considerations that organisations can use when evaluating strategies to determine which are the most suitable. Using the information from the above case study, evaluate the appropriateness, desirability and validity of the differentiation strategy that Checkers is following.