When you’re a small business you have to have self-belief and belief in your product. You also need to have tenacity and grit, along with a willingness to make sacrifices and put in the hard work. That’s right, HARD work because small business isn’t easy. You can have all these qualities, but sometimes, what you really need is a chance, a chance to prove yourself, to show what you’re made of, and to build your dream.
About a year ago The Shoprite Group of Companies gave us that chance, they gave us our first big break! We worked hard and waited patiently to earn it, but we got it. They gave us an opportunity to list Wonder Pop in their 53 Checkers stores across the Western Cape. As a company, they are fully committed to supporting small businesses and they believed in us and our product. They gave us a chance to prove ourselves. That’s all we needed.
We will never forget the feeling of loading that first truck and the even better feeling of seeing our products on the Checkers shelves for the first time. But, those early joys were short-lived because that was when the hard work really began. We were ready for it and up to the challenge. We visited every Checkers store (within our geographical range), we met the managers, we befriended the merchandisers, and we constantly made sure that we had had off-shelf displays, bins, stands and where possible gondola ends. We were there as regularly as possible. We had no budget for these things, we still don’t. But, we asked nicely and sometimes we begged and pleaded. They supported us. Sales started to pick up. We met with buyers, we did deals, we had promotions, we even got a leaflet or two. We put in the effort, we did the work. They continued to support us. They gave us a chance to prove ourselves.
Fast forward 6 months, we’d built up a track record and we were ready for the next big step – Gauteng.
We went back to Checkers (this time to the Gauteng team) and asked them to believe in us once more. It wasn’t a walk in the park, but who said it would be? We had to ask nicely, we had to make a strong case because retail shelves are already pretty full, especially in the snack category. It took some time but we got there. Once again it was about perseverance, tenacity, grit and someone who was just prepared to give us a chance.
Hello Checkers Greater North! 168 additional stores with more to come. Now the hard work begins. Let’s go
