Every big city household spends 571 RON/month on consumer goods

The average big city household spending on basic products amounts to 571 RON (some 155 euros) per month, according to the “Shopper Trends” survey by researcher AC Nielsen. The survey is based on a poll on the consumption preferences of Romanians, conducted in Bucharest and six other big cities, with more than 200,000 inhabitants. The survey says that more than half of the monthly basic spending of a family goes on food. Average food expenses per household therefore amount to some 320 RON (less than 90 euros). The average amount of money a family in Bucharest spends on food, consumer goods and personal care products stands at over 600 RON per month, 65% of which goes to food. According to the survey, two thirds of Romanian shoppers in the big cities say they enjoy going shopping and almost as many prefer to do their shopping in modern centres, such as hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters and cash & carry stores. This explains why the share of sales through modern commercial centres in the total sales of consumer goods has increased by more than three times over the last four years. Modern shopping centres accounted for close to 25% of the value of the total of sales registered in the consumer goods sector in Romania at the end of last year, compared with less than 10% in 2003. However, compared with 2004, the market share of the modern commercial complexes only rose by 3% in absolute terms compared with an 11% growth in the previous year. ZF