{"id":877065,"date":"2026-09-27T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=877065"},"modified":"2026-09-27T07:12:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T05:12:50","slug":"south-africans-are-saying-goodbye-to-game-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/877065\/south-africans-are-saying-goodbye-to-game-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africans are saying goodbye to Game stores"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are saying goodbye to Game stores with their wallets as they shift their focus towards the Walmart-branded stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was revealed after the opening of Walmart at the East Point Shopping Centre at the end of February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SA Corporate Real Estate, which owns the shopping centre, said Walmart achieved a trading density 28.7% higher than Game over its first four months of trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SA Corporate Real Estate disclosed the performance in its results for the six months to the end of June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWalmart commenced trading at East Point in March 2026 and has already outperformed the Game store it replaced,\u201d the company said. Trading density measures sales generated per square metre of retail space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes the comparison between the two stores very relevant, as the Walmart outlet is operating in the same shopping centre and location previously occupied by Game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Boksburg store is Walmart\u2019s third South African outlet, following the opening of stores at Clearwater Mall in Roodepoort and Fourways Mall in Johannesburg in November 2025. All three stores occupy former Game sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massmart, Walmart\u2019s South African subsidiary, said the Boksburg opening formed part of an accelerated rollout after strong customer response to the first two stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Boksburg opening builds on the strong momentum from successful launches in Clearwater and Fourways, where customers have also enthusiastically embraced Walmart\u2019s Every Day Low Price philosophy,\u201d Massmart said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company had initially proposed another 21 Walmart stores across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Massmart had not provided further details on when or where the next stores would open, leaving the pace of the rollout uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performance of the East Point store nevertheless provides an early indication of what the retailer hopes to achieve by converting some existing Game locations into Walmart stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Walmart launched in Boksburg, Massmart said the opening had been well supported by the local community and created 80 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The number of Game stores has declined in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The first Walmart storefront at Fourways Mall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Andr\u00e9 Steyn, Massmart\u2019s vice-president of format acceleration, said the company was encouraged by the turnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful to have seen so many families come out to join us to experience this opening,\u201d Steyn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t think of anything else that\u2019s so suited to a great day out for them than that fun, welcoming and exciting energy of a Walmart store opening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change has also prompted East Point\u2019s landlord to consider how the shopping centre can adapt around the new anchor tenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWalmart\u2019s introduction has also created opportunities to further enhance the tenant mix,\u201d SA Corporate Real Estate said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cManagement is pursuing an upmarket coffee offering, as well as additional children\u2019s entertainment and complementary athleisure brands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Walmart rollout comes as Game\u2019s South African footprint continues to contract. The chain had 99 stores in South Africa at the end of January 2026, its first time below 100 stores in more than 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A further 21 stores were identified for potential closure or conversion, which would leave about 78 Game stores if all were converted or closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massmart has stressed that this does not mean the end of Game in South Africa. In February, it said it was considering closing \u201caround\u201d 20 stores while continuing to invest in the remaining Game business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The affected stores included branches in Amanzimtoti, Ballito, Richards Bay, Pietermaritzburg and The Pavilion in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential conversions have also been identified across Gauteng and the Western Cape, although Massmart has not publicly confirmed every future Walmart location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy also marks a change from an earlier proposal to test small-format Makro stores in selected Game locations. That plan was announced in 2024 but has since received little public attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africans are saying goodbye to Game stores with their wallets as they shift towards the US-branded stores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":877080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2104076835235447176","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2218038809016518","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18085221671689720","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11615,10387,853,2819],"class_list":["post-877065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-game","tag-massmart","tag-south-africa","tag-walmart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":877082,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877065\/revisions\/877082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}