Sticker mania takes hold of moms and bobbas

Your bobba may have gone to Checkers for milk and come out with three shopping bags, six Stickables, and a list of exactly which ones the grandchildren still need. 

The Checkers collectables have sparked a craze that seems to know no age limit, with children and adults trading doubles, hunting down missing characters, and recruiting friends and family into the mission to complete their sets. 

For some, it’s a bit of harmless fun; for others, completing the collection has become a family operation. WhatsApp groups have turned into trading floors, spare Stickables are carefully catalogued, and no friend, relative, or unsuspecting Checkers shopper is safe from being asked, “Which ones did you get?” 

In Facebook groups, moms and grandmothers search high and low not just for the stickers but the books to put them in. 

It is a genius marketing strategy for the supermarket chain, getting people to spend their hard-earned rands in R200 increments for small stickers. 

Steven Sidley, visiting professor at the Centre for Postgraduate Studies at Rhodes University, explained that in researching his newly released book, Checkmate: How Shoprite Checkers Rewrote the Rules and Won, he got a chance to look under the hood of its often innovative approach to marketing. 

“The Minis were one of their first forays into a sort of viral ‘cultural moment’ market in which kids are recruited into marketing ambassadorships for the company. Obviously, this was subsequently extended to the mini Sixty60 motorcycle scooters and other child-oriented mini campaigns. They are extremely good at these – no one else gets close. It is a different sort of marketing than the traditional world of ‘10c per bag of apples’. Create demand by having kids pester their parents. Pester power,” he said. 

An anonymous Joburg Jewish mother explained that since the promotion started, she has spent an ungodly amount so she could meet the threshold to get a few stickers every time she’s gone shopping. She would even make special trips every day and spend at least R400 so she would get two stickers. 

“I can’t even tell you how much I have spent at Checkers. I want to complete the collection; it’s not even for the kids at this point. It’s bringing back the days of collecting stickers in my sticker book when I was younger.” 

The most frustrating thing about the whole phenomenon for her is that she’s spent all this money and has so many duplicates. “I need just two more, and it’s like I am haunted by these duplicates and my financial irresponsibility,” she said. 

Sandton mom Staci Lyons explained that she and her seven-year-old were sad that Checkers decided to do stickers this year instead of the miniatures. But she has used collecting the stickers to teach her only child to share. 

“Sharing isn’t always the easiest for her because she’s seven. So, what we did was help her complete her collection first, and now we’re focusing on helping her friends complete theirs. I write to the class groups asking who needs what, and every day she takes Stickables to school to give to other children. We don’t swap them or ask for anything in return; we just give them. It’s been really good for her to learn how to share and help others,” she said. 

She explained that though she hasn’t gone out of her way to shop at Checkers during the promotion, all of her clients know that she and her daughter love collecting things and so will bring their stickers to her. 

“Just in the last week, I opened about 85 Stickables, and I haven’t even shopped at Checkers. It all comes from people who know I’m collecting – clients who don’t have young kids, sales reps, everyone. It’s so nice that people know and think of me. Altogether, I’ve probably opened about 400 or 500 packets.” 

Another anonymous Johannesburg mom explained that she, too, was shopping at Checkers more to get stickers for her children. 

“It definitely has influenced me, as I made sure I did all my shopping at Checkers only. I’d also buy stuff I didn’t really need to get to the R200, R400, or R600 mark if I was close to getting that extra sticker. I’ve spent a fortune just to get the stickers, as I had to make sure each time I got her the most I could, so I would buy extra to get that sticker,” she said. 

The anonymous mother explained that she gets more excited than her children when they get a new sticker to add to the collection. “It’s almost like I throw a party for a new sticker, but when I am spending so much money on these things, I want to make it worth it.” 

Lyons agreed, saying that she and her husband got into collecting stickers and Minis as well. 

“I was actually a bit disappointed when I saw they were Stickables rather than Minis because I loved the Minis. My husband and I used to sit and feel the packets, try to guess what was inside, and then open them for the surprise. This year, we didn’t love the Stickables quite as much, but my daughter absolutely loved them. She was also really lucky and managed to get about six or seven gold ones.”