The slowdown in inflation to 4.9% was accompanied in November by a slight increase in consumption in supermarkets. In that month, mass consumption recorded an increase of 0.7%even compared to a positive base of 5.4% last year, motivated essentially by the large chains.
Last month’s result means that in the accumulated figure for the year consumption shows an increase of 2.2%, which implies that 2022 would close with a positive balance, after six years of contraction.
The last year in which mass consumption showed a positive result was 2015, when it grew by 2.9% compared to 2014. The following years showed declines. The most pronounced was that of 2019, which exceeded 7% year-over-year, according to records from consulting firm Scentia, which measures all sales channels, inclusive self-service and large supermarket chains.
The meager increase in November, according to these data, was explained by a growth of supermarkets by 5.1% against a drop of 3.1% in traditional tradewhich has gone down as in the last few months due to the price differential which he holds with chains.
It so happens that department stores is where the government has implemented the Alert Pricing (now Fair Pricing) programs. Moreover, consumers also pay with cards and they offer different discounts and offers.
Instead self-service or local shops such as the Chinese, which in turn are supplied by wholesalers, They cannot access the same benefits from their suppliers, with which they reach their customers with higher prices. For this reason, these points of sale are losing sales volume hand in hand with the inflationary acceleration which, according to INDEC, reaches 92.4% year over year.
In any case, according to the Scanntech company, which monitors sales in the self-service channel, although in November the decline was 5.2% in these stores, slowed down level compared to previous periods, both in the metropolitan area (AMBA) and in the interior of the country.
According to this monitoring, in these enterprises “the frequency of visits grows by about 7.1% during the accumulated 2022, but with a lower average transaction in number of units (-11%)”, states the Scanntech report.
In the Scentia measurement, all baskets tested positive in supermarket sales and only two in self-service (alcoholic and soft drinks). Considering the performance of all points of sale, over the year, the categories that recorded declines were Hygiene and household cleaning (-1.1%) and Hygiene and cosmetics, with a decrease of 0.2%.
With these results, underlines Osvaldo del Rio, director of Scentia, “the cumulative figure for the year rises by 2.2% and it is very probable that, after six years of retraction, mass consumption in 2022 ends in positive ”, added.
By regions
Regarding the sales performance in the different regions, AMBA contributes to the positive result (3.2%) while Interior recedes (-0.9%) “It is important to consider that the basis of comparison affects these variations, especially for the good performance of the interiors in the months of 2021 and in the first half of 2022”, clarified del Rio.
Finally, an analysis of the different “drivers” of consumption made by the consultant Claves concludes that “The approaching end of the year brings a moderate expectation of consumption growth, even if divergent among the different items”he pointed.
NEITHER
Source: Clarin
