Chocolate, mashed potatoes and yoghurt: inflation forces to cut the purchase at the supermarket

The advance of inflation is limiting the possibilities of the family budget and one of the first cuts that is being imposed on families It is the purchase at the supermarket. Thus, faced with the need to reduce spending, consumers they begin to abandon some products that move to the “expendable” category at this juncture.

This takes place in the context of the a inflationary increase of 58% per year, while food and drinks show a 62% increase, according to INDEC data.

What are the products that consume the least in this context? A ranking by the consultancy firm Focus Market shows that – in the last year – the decline in food purchases (monitored in self-service shops according to the Scanntech methodology) has become more evident in yogurt, mashed potatoes, tea, chocolates, flans, pre-mixed flours and frozen chicken.

Among the drinks, the least choices in the same period were powdered juices, wines and beers that exceed the 500 cc containers. Among the hygiene items, alcohol, bath soap and dyes were the least in demand, and in the household cleaning category people added less to the canguito, air fresheners, insecticides, soap powders and detergents.

Among the foods that participate even to a lesser extent in the domestic tables there is the beef. Currently, according to data from the Institute for the Promotion of Beef (IPCVA), consumption has been reduced to 47.8 kilos per capita per year, the lowest in 100 years.

In this case, the price increases were decisive in the decline in consumption, even if they do not explain everything as it also affects a paradigm shift in people’s diets. However, the prices of meat scare any consumer: until April they had had an average annual increase of 67.9% according to the IPCVA, despite the measures taken by the government to try to contain this increase.

In fact, one of the novelties that recently appeared on the shelves is there “Individual” packs of meat.in the best European style where this food has been a luxury for a long time.

Martin Estevez, an analyst at consultancy Nielsen, comments on the new consumer restrictions: “While we are seeing significant price increases across the entire basket today (year-on-year price increases of around 62%), we see households being the most affected products Basic food, cleaning and sanitation “list.

In the case of Basic Foods (with a decrease of 2.8% in the last year) the effect is seen “in the products that have a greater weight in the basket of the lowest socio-economic levels, such as Flour, Powdered Milk, Pastels and Crackers. Cleaning and toiletry show drops of -3.3% and -3.1% respectively and falls are also distinguished in other bases such as Kitchen rolls, toilet paper and sinks.

“Another interesting case is baby diapers, where, in addition to the decline in consumption, the mix changes, migrating towards formats with fewer units, which also marks a trend of a consumer who takes care of the disbursement in every purchase opportunity “, said the analyst Nielsen.

The diapers For example, they appear in the top 10 of products with the highest increases in the first five months of the year, according to data from Focus Market, with an increase of 72.7% over that period.

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