2015

UK Shoppers Adopt German ‘Smart Shopping’ Trend

New trend involves acquisition of different products from different stores to combat financial hardship

October 30th, 2014
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News from Berlin - A recent study shows that shoppers in the United Kingdom are beginning to adopt the German trend of 'smart shopping'. The adoption of this technique comes as people are no longer readily able to afford luxury brands or most products from UK supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsburys.

German 'smart shopping' tradition involves acquisition of different products from different stores. For example, bread from the local bakery, meat from the local butchery, fruit and vegetables from a local market and cleaning products and most other goods from from Aldi or Lidl.

Following research conducted in Frankfurt by BBC news reporter, Steph McGovern, some of Britain's biggest supermarkets have been struggling with customers recently. British consumers are on a tight budget, as a result the UK’s standard of living has transformed and stores such as UK top food retailer Tesco have suffered. Figures show that the worst quarter for Tesco in decades ended this May, 2014. However the situation is not uniformly bad for all supermarkets with figures showing that Aldi (Germany’s famed discount grocer) has rapidly increased its market share.

The profits of these supermarkets have been squeezed by mass discount stores such as Aldi and Lidl. These two German chains are growing at a much faster rate in comparison to any of their supermarket competitors, but they are still relatively small in the UK taking up 8% of the market in comparison to Germany where these discount stores have cornered a third (33%) of the market. Analysts state, however, that this 8% figure is set to double in the UK.

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References and Links

News from Berlin
Berlin Global