Aldi, Lidl and Co Truffles and filet from the discounter
Discount food chains offer lots of gourmet items during the holidays but regular supermarkets thrive. And for Germans, the Christmas meal remains more important than the gift giving.
Truffle butter, venison steaks and champagne Premiere Cru: At Christmas, a flood of fine delicacies will find their way to the shelves of Aldi, Lidl and Co. again this year. A "little luxury" for the festive occasion has become a big deal for discounters.
"The pre-Christmas period is now the most important time for discounters during the year," says retail expert Thomas Täuber of the consulting firm Accenture. This is because the gourmet foods not only bring additional sales, but they carry particularly high profit margins.
According to a recent survey from consultancy group EY, Germans spend an average of 109 euros for their holiday dinner. Sweets not included. This adds up to well over nine billion euros in spending on food and drink during the holidays.
In fact, the holiday meal has even more meaning for families than the giving of gifts at Christmas time. According to market research from the firm Nielsen, a whopping 97 percent of Germans associate Christmas with good food and 90 percent with gifts.
But even if the discounters do good business at Christmas - supermarkets and specialist shops mainly benefit from the shoppers willingness to spend a little more. "In the weeks before Christmas, the dynamics in the food trade are temporarily changing," says Nielsen trading expert Fred Hogen. "Discounters are losing market share and supermarkets are gaining some ground." With their fresh meat, fresh fish and cheese supply, they are simply better at meeting consumers' needs during the holidays.
Aldi, Lidl and the other discount food chains are busy trying to secure as much market share as possible, with expensive television ads, elaborate brochures and an expanded offer of gourmet items. But the effects are limited. Discounters have success in only some areas, for example champagne sales rose by 70 percent between 2014 and 2016. But Hogen says this is not the rule of thumb and that discounters have still not made much progress on their attempt at closing the gap to supermarkets.
Trade expert Martin Fassnacht says the gourmet offensive is not only about extra earnings for the discount food chains. "The main goal is different: they want to enhance their image and also address high-income customer groups, which tend to avoid the low-cost chains." (Orig. text: Erich Reimann, dpa. Translation: ck)
