Hungarians’ grocery buying habits compared with the European average

80 percent of Hungarian consumers changed their households’ buying habits if compared with 12 months before, in order to save money.

This ratio is one of the highest in Europe as only the Portuguese (82 percent) and the Italians (81 percent) produced bigger change – reports a 60-country Nielsen study from the 3rd quarter of 2013. The index was the lowest in Germany (33 percent) and Austria (36 percent). 70 percent of Hungarians switched to cheaper groceries and 59 percent economised on their gas and water consumption. 74 percent of Austrians, 73 percent of Greeks and 71 percent of Germans decided to start buying cheaper groceries. Always visiting the same store: the loyalty index was 3.0, the lowest in Ireland and Hungary, and it was the highest, 3.9 in Bulgaria. In 2012 Hungarian consumers visited super- or hypermarkets 3.3 times a month, but this year they frequented them 3.7 times/month. This value was between 4.5 and 3.8 in Denmark, Austria, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, France and the Netherlands the index was between 3 and 2.5.