of customers had to abandon their shopping at the checkout

The Russian supermarket chain, Mere, announced a year ago its intention to open ten stores in Belgium in 2021, including the first in Opwijk. A plan that had finally been undermined by several problems, including supply with suppliers. The war in Ukraine did nothing to help the schedule for the brand, which had finally gotten used to the numerous opening postponements.

Finally this Wednesday, as Gondola magazine reports, Mere’s first Belgian store opened its doors. It is therefore in Opwijk, in Flemish Brabant, that we can discover this new business, nine months after what was planned. An opening that does not delight everyone, context of war in Ukraine obliges. Our colleagues from the Nieuwsblad also went there to test this new competitor store from Aldi. It is also 20% cheaper!

But the beginnings did not really go as planned. Suppliers who do not want to cooperate, absence of customers but above all, a non-operational bancontact which forced the few customers present… to abandon their shopping at the checkout for lack of cash. And concretely, even if Mere wants to impose himself as a competitor of Aldi, he wants to know that there is no fresh product and that all the products are presented on the pallets on which they were delivered. The majority of customers had come out of curiosity. “And we have to say it: our impression is positive. It’s spacious, you have a good overview. And despite everything being in cardboard boxes, the presentation is clean. It doesn’t matter that everything comes from Russia. We also need to look at the financial situation. Life is becoming more and more expensive, and it’s cheaper here,” explain Marc and his partner, for example.


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