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Since the Rimi store on Sõle Street in Tallinn will be closed for good, the store held a closing sale.
PHOTOS ⟩ Shopping in Sõle Rimi like there was no tomorrow
A 30 percent discount sign decorated the store until Friday lunchtime, which was replaced by a 70 percent discount by evening. While there were five or six cars in the parking lot in the earlier days, around noon on Friday there were about 30 vehicles.
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The variety and quantity of merchandise in the store seemed to be inversely proportional to the number of cars parked.
There was an emptiness in the store on Friday evening which one could not even remember from the Soviet era. Practically everything was sold out. Corona masks were one of the few wares still available in large numbers.
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A Russian-speaking lady remarked at the checkout that it was pure horror – people were buying like there was no tomorrow.
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Already on Thursday, girls in the store complained that the ice cream selection was non-existent, and men grumbled about the lack of beer. Sõle Rimi was opened in August 2013. The store employed 26 people at the opening. Its address is Paavli 10.
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The Rimi store real estate belongs to Lidl, which bought it in 2019.
«The lease agreement is valid until 2023, and until then we definitely intend to operate there,» Katrin Bats, Rimi Estonia's communications manager, told Ärileht back in 2019.
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Now Rimi's spokesperson Katrin Bats replied that Rimi was leasing the Sõle premises. «The lease has expired now and we have to leave,» she said.
A Lidl store is likely to come there, but the company is traditionally secretive about its plans and the time of opening the store.
«At Lidl, we constantly evaluate the market situation and potential locations for building new stores. At present we are also exploring different possibilities for building stores in different locations,» said Janika Jaago, Lidl's public relations specialist. «Please understand that due to the competitive situation, we cannot comment on specific locations.»
The Sõle Rimi Super will be closed for good on August 7, 2022 at 6 p.m.
The store will not be reopened, Rimi's website states laconically.