An iPhone, a Kia, and Maybe an Apartment: How Israel's Cheapest Grocery Chains Are Cashing In Without Touching Your Basket

By מערכת סופרקליר · 2026-07-20 · 5 min read

19% — How far below the national median Osher Ad's grocery basket still sits on Superclear's price index — almost unchanged from before the chain started selling iPhones and Kias (Superclear data, July 2026)

You walk in for milk and bread, and walk out with an iPhone 17, a brand-new Kia Sportage — and, soon, maybe even an option on an apartment out in the periphery. That's not a hypothetical. It's what actually happened, inside three months, at Israel's cheapest grocery chains. But when we checked our own data, we found the flashy iPhone and Kia deals weren't quietly funded by a pricier everyday grocery basket. The real money, it turns out, sits somewhere else entirely.

From frozen chicken to a Kia Sportage

The wave started in November 2025, when Osher Ad — the cheapest chain in Israel on Superclear's price index — surprised the market by starting to sell iPhones at 2,999-4,999 shekels, hundreds of shekels less than the big electronics chains, per Calcalist. Victory and Rami Levy jumped in fast. In mid-May 2026, Victory broke the market again: the base iPhone 17 (256GB) dropped to 2,599 shekels chain-wide, the iPhone 17 Pro to 3,999 shekels, and the Pro Max to 4,399 shekels — among the lowest prices these models had seen in Israel (N12/Mako). Worth noting: these are eSIM-only units with no physical SIM slot — a detail easy to miss when you're racing to check out.

Then came the more startling part. On May 31, 2026, Osher Ad started selling brand-new, zero-kilometer 2026 Kia Sportage vehicles at 13 of its 35 branches, priced at 139,990 shekels — against a market price for comparable models running roughly 149,000 to 200,000-plus shekels (Globes). The partner on the deal was Auto Center, part of Meir Holdings, and the inventory had reportedly already been registered around ten months earlier, per Calcalist. The result: the entire stock sold out in under 10 hours.

Rami Levy didn't stay behind. On June 18, 2026, the chain launched "Rami Levy Mobility" — marketing Chinese-made BAIC electric vehicles in partnership with Dalhom Motors, including a EU5 electric family sedan starting at 99,990 shekels, plus pricier ArcFox and FOTON commercial models running up to 326,000 shekels. The sales site crashed within hours of launch under the traffic (Wheel). First deliveries are expected in August 2026, backed by a five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty and a 5,000-shekel voucher for the first 100 buyers (Ynet).

Victory, for its part, isn't stopping at cars and phones: as of a June 1, 2026 report, the chain is examining — at this stage a feasibility study, not a committed launch — marketing apartments priced at 1.3 to 1.8 million shekels in high-demand towns between Gedera and Hadera, with Victory acting as a marketing partner alongside construction firms rather than a developer itself (Bizportal). Carrefour, meanwhile, is opening 250-500 square-meter "Carrefour Home" sections in select branches, selling furniture, textiles and small appliances — from a 70-shekel hand mixer to a 2,399-shekel TCL air conditioner (Calcalist).

The economics behind the noise

Per analyst Eli Maron, quoted by Calcalist, margins on electronics, furniture and similar non-food items run 35% or higher — against 18%-27% on classic grocery categories. Carrefour CEO Michael Loboshitz told Calcalist the chain is aiming for 15%-20% of revenue from non-food, up from around 5% at most chains today. In other words: this isn't consumer altruism. These are chains that figured out the real margin isn't in the bag of tomatoes — it's on the electronics shelf, in furniture, and, potentially soon, in cars and apartments.

So what actually happened to your grocery basket

The question that mattered to us: if these chains are making such good money on iPhones and Kias, is it quietly funded by creeping grocery prices on the same shelves? We checked Superclear's data as of July 20, 2026 — after the full wave of these deals — and the answer, at least for now, is no.

Osher Ad is still Israel's cheapest chain: it ranks 33rd out of 33 chains on Superclear's price index, 19% below the national median — very close to the roughly 20% we reported in July, before it started selling cars at all. Rami Levy ranks 29th, 14% below the median. Victory, which stars in both the iPhone price war and the apartment feasibility study, ranks 15th, about 5% below the median — close to the 4% we measured for it in an earlier piece. In plain terms: the three chains leading the charge into electronics, cars and real estate haven't gotten pricier on their basic grocery basket. They simply found a separate profit stream, entirely apart from the shelf where you buy your milk and eggs.

What it means for shoppers

This isn't a story about generosity. A 140,000-shekel Kia that sells out in 10 hours, or Israel's cheapest iPhone price — these are marketing tools designed to pull you into the store, exactly like any other loss-leader promotion, just on a much bigger scale. The real profit comes from the foot traffic they generate and from selling much-higher-margin items alongside it. And it's also not a story about hidden grocery inflation — our data shows no sign that the grocery basket at these chains is quietly rising to cover the electronics-aisle discounts.

The bottom line: if you're there for milk, don't let the "opportunity" talk you into a car. But if you're genuinely in the market for a car or a phone, these chain deals are worth checking seriously — because unlike a lot of other promises from grocery chains, these discounts are backed by real, verifiable prices, not just a headline.

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