Venison goulash and beef fillet, rosé champagne and salmon in puff pastry: Despite the depressed consumer sentiment, the discounters in Germany are once again luring their customers before Christmas this year with a touch of luxury.
Your chances of surviving against the supermarkets, which are otherwise popular with customers in the Christmas business, are better than they have been for a long time. After all, because of inflation, more and more people have to pay attention to every cent.
"Many households are now really reaching their financial limits and simply can't shop the way they used to," reports retail expert Robert Kecskes from the market research company GfK. In a GfK survey in autumn, almost 23 percent of those surveyed stated that they could hardly afford anything anymore.
Significant price increases put pressure on the purse
"About a third of people are planning to spend significantly less money on Christmas this year," says retail expert Frank Küver from market research company Nielsen IQ. Most of the others were also worried. According to him, only a very small part of the population does not feel at all affected by the price increases and carries on as before.
No wonder, then, that the discounters play the price joker in their advertising for the festival. Aldi Nord promises: "Great joy for a small price". The sister company Aldi Süd invites you: "festive save and enjoy". The eternal rival Lidl promises its customers a "relaxed Christmas time" when buying products from its own luxury brand Sansibar Deluxe, even in times of tight money. One of the discounters calculates that you can afford a festive gourmet menu with duck, red cabbage, dumplings, dessert and red wine for less than ten euros.
The fact is: in the past few months, the discounters have been able to noticeably increase their market share at the expense of the supermarkets. In the first ten months of this year, the low-cost providers increased their sales by 6.1 percent, mainly due to inflation, according to GfK. Supermarkets, on the other hand, lost 0.5 percent. The gap between the sales channels has widened more recently.
Christmas enthusiasm: Germans don't want to cut corners at the festival
It remains to be seen whether this streak of success will continue in the high-sales weeks before the festival. Nielsen expert Küver is rather skeptical. "The majority of German consumers are very enthusiastic about Christmas." The festival has a very high emotional value. “Especially in these times, for many people it is an anchor point where they do not want to make any or only a few cuts,” he points out.
In retail, Christmas is traditionally the time for the supermarkets, not the discounters. "And that will probably change very little this year," Küver is convinced. "People will compare prices more, buy more special offers, but in the end they want to spoil themselves and their loved ones for Christmas."
There will probably be one exception: many people who do most of their shopping at the discounter anyway would also buy the “little luxury” there for the festival this year.
The GfK expert Kecskes expects that, in view of the price increases, many consumers will switch from the branded articles they have previously preferred at Christmas to slightly cheaper premium retail brands such as Rewe Beste Wahl, Edeka Genussmomente, Lidl Sansibar Deluxe or Aldi Gourmet. A first development in this direction could already be observed at Easter. "The discounters could benefit from this trend if they play this topic wisely," the industry expert is convinced.
However, he also assumes that a majority will want to treat themselves to something special for the festival this year. His conclusion: "December will remain a month of the mark. But compared to last year's Christmas business, there will be cutbacks."
