Aggressive expansion of the hypermarket, supermarket and discounter formats on the one hand and development of proximity formats on the other drove many small traditional food stores developed by local entrepreneurs out of business.
Carrefour and Mega Image alone developed more than 100 proximity stores under the Express and Shop&Go brands. These stores now account for 2% of the sales in local retail, according to a survey by market research company GfK, compared with 0% in the previous year.
Annual sales of modern proximity stores can be estimated at EUR300 million.
Modern retail and traditional retail ratio has been relatively balanced in the last few years, but international companies have been gradually gaining ground. In 2013, modern trade beat traditional trade for the first time in Romania.
The GfK survey also shows that Romanians bought more chocolate, coffee and beer in the first six months of the year, while buying a lower of amount of staple foods like milk, yellow cheese and edible oil. This means they chose to get themselves a treat after five years of crisis and cautious spending on shopping.
Chocolate saw the highest increase in sales in volume among foods, 10%. Sales of yellow cheese and edible oil on the other hand, fell 5% according to the GfK data. The survey shows Romanians chose to buy a lower amount of staple foods, treating themselves to sweets and coffee.
Consumer spending that used to drive the economy during the boom years started shrinking in 2009, the first year of crisis for the local economy, and has since dropped by more than 15%.
Romanians have become more and more cautious when it comes to spending and less willing to buy anything more than what they absolutely need. Consumer spending fell 0.3% (adjusted series) in the first nine months of 2013, according to the National Statistics Institute. The GfK data sent a positive signal for consumer spending, showing that the market is willing to get out of the comfort zone.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)