Consistently high inflation rates have caused an apparent change in Belgian consumer habits.
While August saw a gradual decline in inflation, food inflation remains conspicuously elevated at +12.73% and persists as an understandable cause for concern among consumers, who have consequently changed their consumer habits to budget their expenses.
A GfK's consumer panel comprising 6,000 participants revealed a general 2% contraction in the volumes of purchases over the past year, compared to the same period the previous year. According to a consultant at the design office François Lambert in a recent Le Soir article, specific categories are impacted more than others.
Hardest hit categories
Meal packages, for example, have plummeted by an astonishing 45.8%. "These meal solutions saw a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, but their sales distribution shifted as pre-pandemic habits returned alongside the reopening of the hospitality industry," Lambert told Le Soir.
Pies, cakes, and fresh pastries have taken a staggering 40.4% dive in sales in the last twelve months. As Lambert put it, "A single pie can easily amount to 10 euros. That reality is causing consumers to reconsider their dessert purchases or even abstain from them altogether."
Chocolate milk, once a staple, has seen a notable decrease in sales over the past year as well, with a drop of 15.8%. The reasons behind this decline are multifaceted, and one can only speculate the cause being the product's non-essential status, like expensive pastries.
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Even the realm of baby food has not been immune to these shifts. Sales of small baby food jars have declined by 15.3%. Lambert explains that while this category had experienced a boost during the pandemic, parents are now cooking baby food again to save money.
In response to elevated energy and water costs, consumers are also cutting back on the frequency of appliance usage, which led to a noticeable decline of 22.7% in purchases of anti-limescale products, 14.4% for dishwasher additives (excluding detergents), 10.1% for laundry detergents and 8.7% for dishwasher soaps.
The far-reaching effects of inflation have set off a series of adaptive changes in consumer purchasing patterns. The nuanced strategies of downtrading, reduction of quantities purchased and the reconsideration of indulgent purchases demonstrate the extent to which inflation influences consumers' choices to manage their budgets in an evolving economic landscape.
