Eroski has been the first supermarket that, after the agreement reached in France and unilaterally, is going to launch a shopping basket with discounted products. The Basque distribution chain has announced this Tuesday that on Monday of next week it will present the campaign "Cesta que enamora" that will be applied in all its centers in Spain and that it will serve to "facilitate savings for consumers", explains the company .
Barely twenty-four hours after the agreement reached between the French Government and the country's large distribution companies, Eroski announces that this basket with discounted products will be activated this month of March. The company specifies that this is the ninth campaign of these characteristics that Eroski has launched since mid-2022 and that "it has nothing to do with the French ad, except for a coincidence in time."
This initiative has not been agreed upon by Eroski, but is part of a commercial strategy to help consumers try to cope with inflation, the company points out. The supermarket group currently occupies the fifth position in market share, with 4.2%, behind Mercadona, Carrefour, Lidl and Dia.
Carrefour already launched a similar shopping basket, with discounted prices, last September with 30 products at 30 euros. The initiative remained available to users until last January.
From the rest of the distribution sector, offering a shopping basket similar to that of France is not contemplated at this time, indicate business sources. They use, to reject this measure, several reasons. In the first place, they remember that in Sarkozy's time it was already shown that these “price freezes” were made at the cost of lowering quality and they are not willing to do so. Secondly, they consider that it is "discriminatory", since the discounts would not reach consumers, from, for example, small businesses. Lastly, they explain that the Minister of Agriculture demanded a few days ago the effort of the entire food chain to adjust costs, and not only of the large supermarkets.
The Government has left the possibility of offering discounted shopping baskets similar to the French model in the hands of distribution companies. This Tuesday, the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, focused on Carrefour, although without mentioning the brand: "Regarding the advertisements that we are seeing in other countries, and which refer to voluntary measures by multinational groups, we take for Of course, those multinational groups that have a presence in Spain will extend any commercial policy that may benefit French citizens to Spanish citizens”.
Carrefour, for the moment, has not ruled on the matter. Sources in the sector distance the possibility of transferring to Spain the decision adopted in the neighboring country because the commercial strategy of the company in the Iberian Peninsula is independent from that of France.
