High prices have led Mexicans to change their buying habits to protect their wallets. Unlike a year ago, consumers prefer to carry fewer products in their supermarket carts, even if they have to go more frequently to restock the pantry.
Lilia Valdés, director of customer service for Kantar’s Worldpanel division, comments that the purchase of merchandise in supermarkets has contracted 2% since inflation broke the 7% barrier last November. The specialist explains that middle-class and even upper-middle-class consumers have reduced the number of units and increased the frequency of purchase, while lower-income families, who already bought little, are now looking for more affordable options.
During the first fortnight of July, inflation stood at 8.16%, its highest level since January 2001. In this boiling of prices, buyers feel more and more uncertainty. Today, 75% of Mexican consumers surveyed by Nielsen IQ say they feel the rise in prices, when a year ago only 67% had that perception.
Consumers told the analytics firm they will be “more cautious” when making purchases.
Among the products that Kantar detects that shoppers leave out of their carts are cleaners, dish soaps, fabric softeners, mineral waters, bottled waters; while they prioritize the purchase of cheeses, soft drinks, snacks, juices, dairy creams, spreadable cheese and condensed milk.
Yanira Reyes, Analytics Leader at Nielsen IQ, mentions that the biggest concern for Mexicans is that price increases are felt in various categories. Some consumers, in addition to reducing the number of products they carry in their cart, prefer supermarkets’ own brands or buy in bulk.
Kantar Worldpanel details that these products that have the rubric of supermarkets represent around 5% of total purchases, when last year it was 4%.
Buy more at the store and less at the supermarket
Preferences for sales channels have also changed. Shoppers perceive corner stores as “a better option” for shopping. This has boosted the sales volume of wholesale chains, such as Zorro Abarrotero, by 11% so far this year compared to 2021, according to data from the consulting firm ISCAM.
In these wholesale chains, the demand for pasta and cookies, which give a feeling of satiety, although they do not necessarily offer more nutrients, has increased.
Rolando Contreras, director of grocery growth at the consulting firm ISCAM, explains that buyers are already suffering from rising prices in their wallets and prefer to go to corner stores to buy “only what they need.”
“It has to do with the fact that the consumer is beginning to have enough for fewer products, and they begin to make more immediate purchases so as not to make large outlays,” he declares.
Nielsen IQ does not expect Mexicans to return to the habits they had last year. “The expectation is that the new trends will continue as long as the context of price increases is not mitigated,” says Reyes. The Kantar analyst agrees. “We will continue to see price increases, there is no certainty of what will happen,” he says.
