Mercadona, Carrefour and Lidl have reinforced their weight with respect to the competition in Spain in a year marked by the escalation of food prices, exceeding 15% inflation in December. The company owned by Juan Roig, a leader in distribution, gains 0.5 points of market share, followed by Carrefour, with 0.4 more points, while Lidl continues in third position, according to the 2022 Consumer Trends report, published this Thursday by NielsenIQ. Regional supermarkets reach a joint share of 15.6%.
The increase in the private label in the shopping basket partly explains this advance in the three main supermarket chains. The increase in food prices has changed the purchasing habits of Spaniards. Consumers are much more sensitive to price and 70% of them adapt their shopping cart to this variable. In addition, 23% state that they know the price of most of the products they buy and 48% state that they know the prices of most items and that they notice when they change.
"That is why consumers have changed their behavior and thus among the measures to save are changing brands and buying the distribution brand, increasing the frequency of visits, buying the cheapest products in the basket habitual, stop carrying some products, opt for promotions and opt for various brands and channels", explains the report.
The increase in the price of food has also led spending in the shopping cart to record figures, with a total of 105,000 million euros in 2022, 9.1% more. The average increase in products has been 9.9%.
Despite inflation, demand remains almost stable and thus a slight decrease in total volume of -0.7% is recorded, motivated by the resistance of packaged products, which despite having a 10% price increase, managed to remain flat on volume (-0.1%).
In this way, the behavior of packaged food, as well as beverages, refrigerated and frozen products and perfumery offset the fall in fresh products, which remained negative throughout the year, with a fall of 2.5%. in demand and a price increase of 10.3% at the end of 2022. Among fresh products, fish and fruit and vegetables are the ones with the greatest decreases in demand: with falls of -9.1% for fish, of -5.5% for fruit and -3% for vegetables.
