The increase in inflation that has occurred in recent years has led all major supermarket chains to raise their prices, without exception. However, not all of them transfer this increase with the same energy as the end customer, that is Masymas, Eroski and Mercadona had the least impact on inflation their products.
This is clear from the 2023 edition of the traditional supermarket study published annually by the organization of consumers and users (OCU), which states that the products that make up it. The shopping basket saw its price increase by an average of 14.1% since the last study.
The OCU report details that price increases were implemented last year by major supermarket chains is between 8% and 17% indicating that there was up to a nine-point difference between the increases made by the different groups.
(The cheapest and most expensive supermarkets in Spain in 2023, according to OCU: this way you can save €1,056 per year)
The chain raised the prices the least on this occasion Knead. In particular, the group, with more than 200 supermarkets spread in Asturias, León, Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Córdoba and Jaén, increases the cost of its products by 8% on average.
Among the five supermarket chains (of the 27 that make up the study) that have the least impact on the shopping basket of rising inflation, three members of the Eroski Group. Specifically, the increase applied to the Eroski brand was 8.1%, while that of Eroski City reached 8.8% and that of Eroski Center was slightly less than 10%.
The exterior facade of a Mercadona supermarket.
In fourth position this year Mercadona the leading chain in the Spanish market with a share of 26.1% in the first eight months of the year, according to a recent report published by Kantar Worldpanel. The increase applied by the group led by Juan Roig is close to 10%.
On the contrary, within the big brands, those raised their prices the most E. Leclerc (16.8%) Supeco (15.8%), Carrefour Express (15.3%) and BM Urban (15.1%), they are all above 15%. Along these lines, Carrefour and Carrefour Market are also above 14%.
Upload your shopping cart
The products that make up the shopping basket used by OCU as a reference to make its report have seen their prices increase by an average of 14.1% since the last study, an increase which is relatively less than that experienced in the previous year, when it was 15.4%.
However, the consumer organization emphasizes that it is the second largest price increase in the 35 years the study was conducted. “In the last two years, the cumulative increase in the shopping basket is 30.8%, which has a great impact on consumer buying habits,” he said.
(Mercadona consolidates its leadership in the distribution sector while Lidl is the fastest growing chain)
“This increase in spending is accompanied by a loss of purchasing power, because buying the same basket means allocating a greater percentage of the family budget. Consequently, many households are forced to buy more processed products and fewer fresh products so the nutritional quality of our food is reduced,” he pointed out.
Like last year, The price increase affects 90% of the 236 products that make up the basket. In this regard, the report details that this time it is a “more homogeneous” increase and there are more types of products among the many increases than last year.
In particular, they have improved significantly sugar (65.7%), condensed milk (61.4%), carrots (56.1%) and frozen French fries (49.7%). Among the products that fell, sunflower oil was the leader (-39.8%), followed by Canary Islands bananas (-34.8%), disposable razors (-22%) and fresh cheese (- -21.2%).
Similarly, the consumer organization also detailed that the improvements are more pronounced in processed products and somewhat less pronounced in the case of fresh produce, a sector where some price drops are recorded more frequently.
To carry out the study, OCU visited 1,108 establishments in 65 cities, in addition to online supermarkets. During your visit, collected 155,489 prices in a shopping basket consisting of 236 products from 16 categories a variety of products including fresh food (fruit, vegetables, meat and fish), packaged food, hygiene and pharmacy products from leading manufacturer brands and private labels.
