“A Certain Store Stole It”: The Genius Behind Skubu’s Refill Grocery Model Explained
- Social media coach Magriet Groenewald praised South African startup Skubu for letting customers buy only the amount of groceries they can afford each day
- Skubu’s refill model allows shoppers to bring their own containers and purchase small quantities of rice, flour, sugar and oil without buying full packets
- South Africans in the comments claimed Shoprite and Checkers had already adopted the concept in their stores
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Source: UGC
A South African startup continues to turn heads for solving a problem that has quietly burdened low-income shoppers for years. Social media coach Magriet Groenewald posted a TikTok on 9 September 2026 explaining how a business called Skubu is flipping the traditional grocery model on its head.
Founded by Eben de Jongh, Skubu operates as a refill grocery store. Shoppers bring their own containers and buy exactly the quantity of staples like rice, sugar, flour or cooking oil that they can afford that day, even if that amount is worth just R20 or R30.
Why buying small actually costs more
Groenewald highlighted a frustrating economic reality that many South Africans know all too well. Shoppers who can afford to buy in bulk, say a 5kg bag of rice, pay less per unit. But those who can only afford a small packet end up paying proportionally more for the same product. Skubu addresses this by removing the packaging constraint altogether.
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The model also carries an environmental benefit. Because customers bring reusable containers, the need for plastic bags, bottles and single-use packaging drops significantly.
“He didn’t invent a new product,” Groenewald said in the video. “He just took what was there already and changed the structure around it.”
She added that she would love to visit a Skubu store in person to see the concept in action.
Watch Magriet’s full explanation of the Skubu model below:
Mzansi weighs in
The video struck a nerve, with many South Africans drawing parallels to moves already being made by major retailers. Several commenters pointed out that Shoprite and Checkers appeared to have quietly adopted a similar approach in some of their stores.
@King_Julian wrote:
“Then Shoprite stole the idea. They literally put it in their first store now.”
@EV said:
“Shoprite stole it and is busy commercialising it.”
@tyranpather2 added:
“It’s now in Checkers.”
@Deon Abrahams observed:
“This model will only work for Skubu. Shoprite and Checkers will lose, as they will be competing with themselves.”
@user3847638297516 noted:
“This is what the spaza shops do. They buy and repackage to allow the budget to stretch itself.”
3 more articles about Skubu
- A TikTok video by @skubu_za posted on 7 May 2026 showed a grocery combo at Diepsloot’s Skubu store that had Mzansi doing a double take.
- A content creator was tasked with spending R100 at Skubu, an automated refill grocery store in Diepsloot.
- Shoprite launched a pilot refill station concept called FillRite, letting customers buy staples like rice, oil and flour in flexible quantities.
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Source: Briefly News
