Aldi challenger has to close shop after five days

What a start: Russian discounter Mere has had to close its first German store after just five days. Not due to a lack of customers, rather the contrary: suppliers could not handle the storming demand and the supermarket’s shelves became empty.

All sold out

The store in East-German Leipzig saw a stampede of eager customers, the German media reported. This week the doors remained closed: “Due to the extremely high demand our store remains closed. We have acted fast, but had to acknowledge our suppliers need more time for their deliveries”, a notification near the entrance said.

Mere is a low cost store concept that is owned by Russian discounter Torgservis, which is also active in Russia, Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan and Romania. Its bare stores offer a product range of around 1700 (food and non-food combined). Often they are leftovers that are priced under Aldi’s or Lidl’s levels. The company has announced it aims for 100 German stores, mainly in the poorer East.