Russian discount chain opens long-awaited first store in Hungary

After a year and a half of waiting and rumours, Russian discount chain Mere has opened its first store in Budapest, Világgazdaság has reported. "It's worth joining the long queue, we're opening the doors at 9:00 a.m.!" Mere wrote on its Hungarian Facebook page, adding that their goal is to offer their products at prices 20-30 percent lower than "traditional" discount chains.

In the end, the chain was not launched under the name Mere in Hungary, but under the brand name Basket Plus, with its first store located on Besence Street in the 18th district, next to one of Mohu's waste processing plants and a few minutes' drive from the stores of its biggest rivals, the German discount chains Aldi and Lidl. According to Mere's Facebook post, the search for additional store locations and properties is currently underway in other areas of the country, including in the Debrecen-Miskolc-Nyíregyháza triangle and in western Hungary.

It was first reported in April 2024 that the Russian-backed Svetofor Group would like to expand its chain of discount stores into Hungary. By then, they had already opened stores in a number of countries from China to Great Britain under various brand names, but mainly under the name Mere. As we wrote at the time, the chain aims to offer its products even cheaper than its German competitors through Spartan cost-cutting, as Mere stores have no decorations or frills, the stores do not even operate warehouses; suppliers must deliver their goods directly to the sales area – at least this is the practice abroad; we do not have this information about the Hungarian store yet.

The Russian chain originally wanted to launch three stores at once on the Hungarian market, but the launch kept being delayed. According to internal information obtained by Telex, the opening was repeatedly postponed due to chaotic management, overlapping teams, struggling negotiations with suppliers, and difficulties in recruiting staff.

In the meantime, there were rumors that the first store would open in Káposztásmegyer, and a store in Nyíregyháza was also registered, but was later cancelled. Meanwhile, it was also revealed that Sergey Shnayder, the founder and owner of the chain, has been registered at a Budapest address for years.

It had previously been revealed that according to the registry, the store that has now opened in Pestszentlőrinc is 779 square meters in size, of which 570 square meters was retail space. When recruitment for the store was underway, forklift operators were sought for a net salary of 350,000 forints, while elsewhere, they were looking for cashiers. The registry also reveals that the store will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.