The first Walmart store has opened its doors in South Africa, with prices cheaper than those of South Africa’s major food retailers.
Walmart opened its first store on Saturday, 22 November 2025, at Clearwater Mall in Johannesburg’s West Rand.
Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, with approximately 270 million shoppers visiting its stores worldwide each week.
The US retail giant first entered South Africa in 2010 through the acquisition of Massmart, the owner of Makro, Game, and Builder’s Warehouse.
Walmart then took over the group in 2022, with Massmart delisting from the JSE that same year.
Three years later, Walmart announced the launch of its brand in South Africa, with the Clearwater location opening just 74 days after the announcement.
BusinessTech visited the new store, where thousands of people queued patiently to see what was on offer despite the travel issues caused by the G20.
The new store has 80 associates and has opened just in time for the holiday season. The new store offers a wide range of goods, including fresh food, appliances, toys, and electronics.
The new store also offers sixty-minute express online delivery for customers within a five-kilometre store radius.
The store also offers a wide range of international goods, including Labubu toys, kitchen appliances by Drew Barrymore, Sour Patch Kids candy, and Dr Pepper and Lacroix beverages.
“We’re thrilled to bring Walmart’s Every Day Low Prices and convenience to families in Roodepoort,” said Onicca Mothapo, the store manager.
“We are also incredibly proud that the Walmart Clearwater store has created 80 new career opportunities and will support 15 SME suppliers identified at the Walmart Supplier Growth Summit held in Johannesburg earlier this year.”
Cheapest in the land
A keen talking point for Walmart has been its cheap prices compared to its competitors, with its slogan being “Save More, Live Better.”
“Opening this first Walmart store in South Africa is about much more than a business milestone” said Andrea Albright, executive vice president and chief growth officer for Walmart International.
“It is a commitment to helping customers save money and live better by consistently delivering the lowest total cost for the basket of products they need.”
“We’re delivering quality without requiring customers to wait for short-term promotions or worry about fluctuating prices.”
During our visit, we decided to see if Walmart was walking the talk and compared its prices with those of four South African retailers.
This includes Woolworths, Checkers, Pick n Pay and SPAR. We used a standard nine-item basket that we have used in previous comparisons, which includes:
- 700g loaf of Albany Superior sliced white bread
- 2-litre sunflower oil (cheapest option)
- 2.5kg Iwisa maize meal
- 2.5kg Selati white sugar
- 2-litre milk (cheapest option)
- 2kg Tastic rice
- 2.5kg Snowflake cake flour
- 175g bar of Dettol herbal soap
- 9-pack of two-ply toilet paper (cheapest option)
We took the in-store prices at Walmart and compared them to the online prices of its competitors. Given that SPAR uses a franchise model, we took the prices from our local SPAR in Centurion.
Across the comparison, Walmart was comfortably the cheapest retailer among the five, with a total basket cost of R362.92.
This is roughly R50 cheaper than second-placed SPAR and over R100 cheaper than Woolworths.
| Item | Walmart | SPAR | Pick n Pay | Checkers | Woolworths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Bread | R18.82 | R19.99 | R19.99 | R19.99 | R21.99 |
| Sunflower oil | R65.95 | R77.99 | R74.99 | R84.99 | R86.99 |
| Maize meal | R37.96 | R39.99 | R39.99 | R41.99 | R34.99 |
| White Sugar | R60.44 | R63.99 | R65.99 | R65.99 | R68.99 |
| Milk | R29.95 | R29.99 | R34.99 | R32.99 | R38.99 |
| Rice | R36.95 | R44.99 | R42.99 | R42.99 | R46.99 |
| Flour | R36.95 | R39.99 | R41.99 | R41.99 | R41.99 |
| Soap | R12.90 | R18.99 | R19.99 | R19.99 | R19.99 |
| Toilet paper | R63.00 | R75.95 | R74.99 | R69.99 | R79.99 |
| Total | R362.92 | R412.87 | R416.91 | R421.91 | R471.91 |
Walmart Opening Day Images
