In a period in which the cost of shopping at the supermarket continues to rise, Italian families find themselves increasingly struggling to maintain their budget.
Galloping inflation, shrinkflation (i.e. reducing quantities in products while maintaining the same price), e increase in raw material costs make shopping a real obstacle course.
It therefore becomes essential to know how to purchase in a more sustainable way for the wallet, without having to give up the quality of the products. But is it possible to reconcile quality and savings?
Altroconsumo comes to the rescue of consumers with its usual annual survey of supermarkets and discount stores to determine which are the most convenient chains to shop in Italy: let’s see the results for 2024.
The investigation
The investigation conducted by Altroconsumo was made by analyzing further 1,140 points of sale in 65 Italian citiesfrom the North to the South of the country.
The data was collected between March 4 and 31, 2024, and concerns 126 product categories among the most purchased, according to ISTAT data – among these foodstuffs, home and personal care products, pet food.
To ensure accurate analysis, they were included in the sample both regular and promotional pricesconsidering only the products actually present on the shelves during the survey period.
This allowed offer a realistic picture of spending, also taking into account any supply difficulties or unavailability of low-cost products.
The data collected was then processed to create a 100-based index, useful for comparing the different chains and individual points of sale based on their price competitiveness.
The results
A first interesting aspect is highlighted by the survey a notable disparity between the North and South of the country: in the northern regions spending tends to be less expensive than in the central-southern regions, where costs can be significantly higher.
In particular, Trentino-Alto Adige appears to be the cheapest region to make food purchases, followed by Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Lombardy, Calabria and Tuscany, with an average annual expenditure of between 6,600 and 6,900 euros.
This gap is also reflected in the incidence of spending on family income: while in the North the incidence is between 12% and 14%, in the South it can reach up to 17%putting further pressure on household budgets.
Another interesting aspect that emerged from the survey concerns the potential savings which varies a lot, even in the same city, depending on the point of sale chosen for shopping, e.g which can reach up to 3,400 euros per year for a family (but varies from city to city).
For example, to Cremona a family can spend up to 25% lesssaving around 2,000 euros per year. This is followed by cities such as Como, Rome, Verona and Milan, where the savings are around 1,300 euros (17-18%).
On the contrary, the cities where the savings are lowest are Reggio Calabria and Catanzarowhere the difference in spending between the most expensive point of sale and the cheapest one is less than 1%, with an annual saving of less than 100 euros.
The ranking of supermarkets
But let’s get to the central point of the article: which are the supermarkets where it is best to do your shopping?
Second Altroconsumothe best supermarket for mixed shopping (which includes branded, private label and discount products) is Famila Superstorewhich maintains the record of the previous year.
Next in the ranking we find:
For those who prefer to buy only branded productsthe most convenient supermarket is Bennett followed, in order, by Esselunga, Esselunga Superstore, Famila Superstore and Spazio Conad.
If you want to save money with i private label products (the so-called private labels) the results change: in the lead we find Carrefourfollowed by Interspar, Famila Superstore and Spazio Conad.
If you are curious to know the complete results of the survey and the ranking of the best discounters, we suggest you read our article on the subject.
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