Effects of the price increase
Shopping behavior could change profoundly
04/13/2022, 11:05 am
As early as January, a GfK survey shows that people are concerned about the rise in food and drink prices. According to the market research company, there are now clear signals that people are no longer shopping as they used to be.
The massive rise in food prices poses problems for many consumers. “People are willing to pay a little more for their favorite products. But that has to be compensated for elsewhere. That has become much more difficult,” said retail expert Robert Kecskes from the market research company GfK, describing the effects of the current price increases.
In a GfK survey of 1,000 consumers in January, 77 percent of people were concerned about rising food and beverage prices. And nearly half of them said the price increases would affect their shopping behavior. Kecskes is convinced that the shares are now even higher given the war in Ukraine.
In fact, according to GfK, there are now signals that the shopping behavior of people in Germany could change fundamentally. After the food trade had grown strongly in the corona pandemic, sales in the industry in the first two months of this year were four percent below the previous year’s level, according to figures from market researcher GfK.
For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, people used cheaper products more frequently in February, Kecskes reported. The market share of retail brands has increased noticeably – at the expense of branded goods. In addition, for the first time in a long time, discounters took a small amount of market share from supermarkets in February.