Alex Trelinski
DISCOUNT supermarket Aldi says it has cut the price of more than 400 products in its stores in Spain.
It claims, in a statement, that the reductions will produce savings of over €104 to customers.
During the first four months of 2024, Aldi reports that it introduced permanent discounts of up to 23% in different product categories to help customers reduce the total price of their shopping basket during the current inflationary period.
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Earlier this year, the government announced an investigation into whether supermarkets have been ripping off customers by not passing on VAT cuts to essential foods and basic goods.
The reduction was introduced by the government at the start of 2023 as part of a package to fight rising inflation.
Consumer groups like Facua have sent in regular reports and complaints to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs- accusing some retailers of profiteering from the measure.
The investigation will focus on food price rises- especially on fresh produce like fruit and vegetables as well as olive oil, which has seen a price hike of over 60% in the last year.
In recent months, Aldi assures it has intensified its regular review of its prices and internal processes to apply improvements that benefit consumers, while still respecting growers and producers.
According to a study carried out by Aldi, based on figures from Kantar Worldpanel, a shopping basket with Aldi’s own-brand products can mean an annual saving of €696.62 for families in Spain.
A Kantor studied published in February showed that Mercadona easily dominated its rivals in 2023, with 26.2% of supermarket sales, followed a long way behind by Carrefour on 9.9%.
Lidl is on 6.4%, Eroski(4.4%), Dia(4.1%), Consum(3.4%), Alcampo(3.1%) and Aldi(1.5%).
The Kantar survey highlights the growth of German discounters Lidl and Aldi who had over 14 million shoppers last year- 6% more than in 2020.
