Supermarket Price Study 2017:
Kaufland is the cheapest supermarket
The ever-increasing turnover is therefore distributed over fewer and fewer companies. Four major retail giants dominate the food market. Market leader EDEKA with its subsidiary Netto Marken-Discount, REWE with its discount store Penny, the Schwarz Group with Lidl and Kaufland and the Aldi Group together occupy 67.4 percent of the market (Trade Dimensions, 2017).
"The foodstuff market is highly competitive," commented Michelle Günter, spokeswoman for Vergleich.org. "It's obvious that supermarkets and discounters are always watching one another, steadily adjusting their prices.”
With "Ja!", "Gut und Günstig” and "Tip" the big supermarket chains also have their own brands in the lower priced sectors. As the survey shows, the full-line providers are able to compete with Lidl and Aldi.
"For our sample cart we chose the cheapest products from 38 pre-defined categories,” explains Günter. "With 36.81 euros, this fictitious purchase would be cheapest at Lidl. But Kaufland, also a part of the Schwarz Group, is a close second with 38.34 euros.”
People who always choose the best product in every category will spend the most money shopping with Real. "The fact that Real is the most expensive is not because that supermarket does not have cheap private labels," says Günter.
"In fact, 83% of Tip-brand products are at a price level comparable to Lidl or Kaufland. Reason for Real’s poor performance is the fruit and vegetable department of this supermarket. While Lidl offers oranges, apples and onions at very reasonable prices, Real's average price for the same products is 88.58 percent more."
Kaufland offered the selected goods at the lowest price. "The same 38 products at Kaufland cost 9.26 percent less than at Edeka," commented Günter. "However, we were particularly surprised by the poor performance of the Netto Marken-Discount. The discounter turned out to be even more expensive than Real and REWE; only Edeka had higher prices."
"Kaufland is the clear winner of our evaluation," says Günter. "The supermarket not only offers branded products at the lowest price, but also has extremely affordable private labels. On the other hand, if you do not really care for big brands, purchasing at Lidl is even better for you. In our test, Aldi Nord could not keep up with Lidl; their basket with their own brands cost 5.29 percent more."
Source: vergleich.org
