Mega, AM:PM for Sale, After Years of Boycott Over Chillul Shabbos

YERUSHALAYIM

Mega, Israel’s second largest supermarket chain with 213 branches, has been put on the market after years of declining profits, Globes reports.

The downturn began in March 2008, after the Alon Group purchased AM:PM, a grocery chain in the Tel Aviv area that was open 24 hours a day, including Shabbos. The Alon Group was a parent company with various supermarket subsidiaries each with specific target populations. It included the Mega stores, which was a discount chain, and Shefa Shuk, in chareidi neighborhoods. Eden Teva Market is a chain of natural food stores.

After the company purchased AM:PM and refused to close the branches on Shabbos, chareidim stopped patronizing the popular Shefa Shuk chain. It reportedly lost hundreds of millions of shekels in sales a year due to the boycott, and Mega has been struggling since, as well. Shefa Shuk then tried to rebrand under a new name, Zol Bashefa, and changed most of the Shefa branches into Megas. But this effort did little to improve the financial outlook, and more branches were closed.

Mega has also suffered from competition from other chains, notably Rami Levy, which is closed on Shabbos.

Sources inform Globes that Alon is in talks to sell the Mega, AM:PM, and Teva Eden Market chains. France’s Auchan Group, Europe’s second largest supermarket chain, is said to be involved.

But the outcome is uncertain. At a conference the day before the potential foreign buyers were given a tour of the chain, Mega retail CEO Motti Keren remarked, “The Israeli market is too small and complex for a global player to enter it.

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