Supermarkets lose ground to hypermarkets in big cities

The first half of the year brought market share increases only to hypermarkets and discount stores, formats that have seen the fastest expansion, reveals a study by market research company GfK. After last year saw hypermarkets leave behind supermarkets in the consumers’ preferences, the first half of 2008 fetched them the largest market share in modern retail, 17%, compared with 15% last year. Over the past year, hypermarkets have proven to be the store format that has taken the biggest bite into traditional retail. Moreover, the entry of hypermarkets in cities with over 150,000 inhabitants could be one of the reasons for the decline in supermarkets’ share in such cities. “Supermarkets are losing ground in big Romanian cities,” shows the GfK study. According to its results, in the first half of 2008, supermarkets’ share of the FMCG market in cities with over 150,000 inhabitants, dropped to 15%, from 23% in the first half of 2007. This comes amid a rise from 18% to 30% in market share of hypermarkets, while the other forms of modern and traditional retail tended to preserve their shares.