Romania lags behind in terms of the annual shopping budget on the one hand and the sum spent on each visit on the other one, according to data provided by europanel.com, a website controlled by market research companies GfK and Kantar Worldpanel.
“The main reason why Romanians spend so little when going shopping by comparison with other Europeans is their lower purchasing power. Once salaries and the purchasing power go up, spent sums will near those of Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary,” says Dragos Cabat, managing partner at consultancy Financial View.
However, he adds that the value of the average shopping basket will always be lower in Romania than in other countries because cultural differences. Thus, for Romanians, going shopping is a way to spend spare time and thus they go shopping more often.
According to europanel.com data, Romanians go shopping consumer goods 187 times a year, namely once every two days. The French go 103 times and the Swedes 132 times.
Prices of foodstuffs, clothes or other personal care products in Romanian stores are often aligned to those of other European states, while salaries lag behind.
Thus, from one salary a German affords to buy much more than a Romanian and this is also the reason why Romanians spend most of their monthly incomes, a little more than one quarter, on food, two times more than the Czechs and three times more than Germans.
Retail players and producers state Romania has low salaries and high VAT for food. To balance out the situation, VAT for all foodstuffs should be primarily reduced. For salaries to rise significantly, massive investments are needed.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)