Supermarket Trends: Greek Consumers Favor Snacks, Soft Drinks, and Alcoholic Beverages Over Ten Months

Despite Greeks saying that they are forced to cut back on basic food purchases due to budgeting, snacks, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages, typically non-essential items, seem to dominate sales in terms of volume.

According to data from Circana (formerly IRI) for the ten-month period of January-October 2023, the largest sales volume increase was recorded in non-alcoholic beverages and snacks at +4.4%, and alcoholic beverages at +4.3%. This is more than double that of dairy products (+2.2%).

The habit of snacking which became ‘big’ during the pandemic, is here to stay with 49% of consumers snacking three or more times a day.

Product categories that also experienced sales volume increases were personal care and beauty products (+1.1%), personal hygiene items (+1.6%), and other household items (+0.1%). Conversely, sales volumes decreased in packaged foods (-0.1%), frozen foods (-0.9%), cooking materials (-2.5%), and detergents/cleaners (-0.5%).
The total sales value of the consumer goods market reached €7.446 billion in the ten-month period, up 9.5% from the €6.821 billion in the corresponding period last year, with food accounting for €5.689 billion.

During the same period, sales volume increased by 1.7% compared to the previous year. Packaged food sales value increased by 9.5%, personal hygiene and beauty product sales by 9.1%, and detergent/cleaner sales by 9.1%.

However, sales volume increased by 1.8% for packaged foods, 1.3% for personal hygiene and beauty products, and decreased by 0.2% for detergent/cleaner products.

The private label trend continues its upward route, registering an 11.9% increase in sales value and capturing a 26.2% market share, while branded products saw slower growth at 8.7%.
In the food category, private label products slightly increased their market share to 26.7% from 26.3% in 2022. In personal care items, it stands at 20.9%, and household items at 25.7%.

The trend of offers on supermarket shelves continues. In the food category, promotional sales contributed to a rise from 21.3% to 24.9%, and in household care products, it increased from 21.7% to 25.6%. Overall, the turnover of fast-moving consumer goods under an offer status increased from 21.9% in 2022 to 25.1% in the January-October 2023 period.