It started, as most of my minor emotional spirals do lately, with a fridge that had given up on me – and one leftover pavlova base staring back like a crunchy, sugar-coated reminder that Eid was around the corner and I was so not ready.

Chronic illness has a funny way of turning even the gentlest holidays into logistical nightmares. Everyone else sees sparkle and family trays; I see body fatigue, burning joints, and the creeping nerve pain that makes even peeling potatoes feel like a dare. So when I opened the fridge that day and saw the lonely pavlova shell – cracked, judgmental, and a little stale – I felt that ache rise. Not hunger. Just the kind of quiet dread that says: “How am I going to do this?”

So I did what anyone with an internet connection and a dwindling supply of spoons would do. I reached for the Sixty60 app.

Checkers, But Rewritten for the Spoonie Era

Checkers has always been the background character of my grocery story. She’s the one you visit when you need bulk samoosa pastry and last-minute tomato paste. But Sixty60? That’s her rebrand. Her quiet come-up. The digital version doesn’t just recreate the store. It refines it. It slices off the unnecessary, adds a smart bow, and delivers it to your doorstep in under an hour.

Sixty60 sells directly through the app, which means the items you see are pulled straight from your local store’s inventory. But the real magic isn’t just in what’s available. It’s in how it’s offered. It doesn’t overwhelm you with options. It anticipates you. Mid-Ramadhaan chocolate cravings? Sorted. Forgot the coriander? It remembers. Need a power bank and cake flour in the same order because your family expects both charging stations and dessert platters at your house? Done.

This isn’t just convenience. It’s a digital love letter wrapped in grocery logic.

Eid Chaos, Calmly Delivered

That week, we had guests. Lots of them. Cousins coming from all over South Africa. An uncle who can only eat low-sodium food. An aunt who insists on imported Turkish delight. Eid prep wasn’t optional. It was survival.

But here’s what Sixty60 did. It quietly absorbed the chaos.

• It synced to my closest Checkers branch and showed real-time inventory. I wasn’t guessing whether the coconut cream I needed was in stock. It told me. No more wasted energy.
• It used logistics mapping to slot me into the next delivery route without making me wait 3 to 5 business years.
• It gently nudged me when I forgot things I usually order, like rose water. Always rose water.
• And it handled bulk orders without crashing, even when I needed enough fresh coriander to service an entire masjid.

Behind the soft colors and gentle UI is a beast of a system. One built to manage thousands of data points and still make the outcome feel personal. Checkers built the app in-house, so the software speaks directly to their inventory and driver system. It’s not duct-taped together. It’s built to function, and function well.

For someone like me, who lives with autoimmune conditions and counts every ounce of energy like it’s currency, that matters more than I can explain.

Pavlova, Revisited (And Redeemed)

When the app pinged and I opened the bag: fresh cream. Strawberries. Egg whites. I cried. Not dramatically. Not messily. Just a quiet sigh of relief kind of cry. Because the pavlova wasn’t just a dessert. It was the thing that reminded me I could still participate. That even when my joints said no, my systems could say yes.

And it was delicious.

What I Expect Now (Because Sixty60 Has Ruined Me)

After having this many boxes ticked without even asking, it’s hard to go back to clunky websites or apps that feel like spreadsheets in disguise. Once you’ve experienced a system that anticipates your needs and gets out of your way, your tolerance for digital friction plummets. Here’s what I look for now – and what Sixty60 has made feel non-negotiable:

• If you don’t update your inventory in real time, don’t talk to me.
• Let me search “green powder thing for dhania chutney” and actually find it.
• Deliver like you respect my energy budget.
• Make your loyalty program make sense without requiring an Excel sheet.
• Don’t just be digital. Be integrated. Thoughtful. Humane.

Eid came and went. The house was full, the food flowed, and I survived it. Beautifully. Because an information system, when done right, isn’t about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about serving human needs quietly, consistently, and with as little friction as possible.

Sixty60 did that. And I love her for it.

Even if she’s partly responsible for me making pavlova two more times that week.