‘It is ending precisely now…’ (Part 3)

This new, 6-part series by Trade magazin and GfK Hungária Market Research Institute focuses on price trends, pricing policies and consumer expectations in terms of price. Last time we examined category changes, including private labels. Now let us continue with tracking changes in consumption patterns and consumer behaviour on the textile market. Domestic volume sales kept falling, by nearly 8 percent last year; however, textile discounters, second-hand clothes stores and large retail chains coped better with the crisis. It may be surprising, but the losers were department stores, independent shops and marketplace sellers. At the same time, last year we bought more from the products we need for cooking-baking at home.

Obviously, this had to do with the crisis: eating out less often means we had to do more cooking at home. This change is rather sure to be lasting, as strong habits like cooking do not change easily – consumers will probably act the same way for a while, even after the recession ended. Pet foods were also winners, perhaps because we throw less food away than before the crisis, consequently we need to buy more pet food for our cats and dogs. We buy less instant soup, muesli, cereals, coffee, chocolate and cold drinks. Millions of households started economising and from ‘A’ brands they made their way to ‘B’ brands or private labels. The fight for shoppers is on – on each level.