Supermarket chain to shutter site that offered cheaper products to ultra-Orthodox

The CEO of a popular supermarket chain vows to immediately shut down a site that offered cheaper products to ultra-Orthodox consumers after a public outcry.

A Channel 12 news report this week found that goods offered on Shufersal Online, an online delivery grocery service run by the Shufersal grocery chain, were more expensive than the same products found on a second website it runs aimed at ultra-Orthodox consumers, which carries only products that have strict “mehadrin” kosher certification.

“I decided to shut down the activities on the ‘mehadrin’ website,” says Shufersal CEO Itzhak Aberkohen in a video statement. Aberkohen vows to “freeze the site for a period of time, study the issue in depth and afterward come out with a new model of operations.” The CEO adds that issues of “transparency and fairness” are very important to Shufersal and to him personally.