Drastic price drops at Hungarian supermarket

The German supermarket chain Lidl has launched a massive price drop campaign for several foodstuffs. The domestically popular and well-frequented grocery store franchise has lowered the costs of almost 400 products since January. In some cases, this reached a 30 percent discount.

The 50 percent price rise related to foodstuffs definitely left a visible impact on consumption statistics. The volume of the sale of food products decreased by 9.6 percent compared to last year’s data. This forced grocery shops to make drastic moves and commit themselves to price decreases, writes Pénzcentrum.

Which are the discounted products?

Lidl has confirmed that they lowered the prices of many dairy and bakery products, including butter, cheese, sour cream and white bread. They also mentioned on their list other basic groceries such as rice, honey, pasta and sandwich spreads. Cleaning materials, baby products and fruit juices also saw price cuts.

The average decrease in prices is around 20 percent, even bordering 30 in some cases. According to research by Pénzcentrum, Lidl is the cheapest grocery market in Hungary. In recent months, consumers have become more price-conscious. Shoppers started actively seeking discounts and special offers. To keep up with the changing consumer trends, the supermarket strategically lowered the prices of many basic and best-selling food products.

Milk price controversy

Lidl’s discount flyers have recently informed customers about a huge bargain. The price of the 2,8 UHT milk was temporarily reduced to only 209 forints (EUR 0,56) between 27 April and 10 May. Not only is this an amazing price, but they also announced that one could buy up to 24 bottles, instead of the usual 3.

However, on the day the discount was supposed to come into action, it disappeared from the flyers without explanation or trace. This obviously caused a public outcry, as such low milk prices haven’t been seen since 2006-2007, 17 years ago. Luckily, the communications team at Lidl shortly confirmed afterwards, that they didn’t break their promise, and the price of the 2,8 UHT milk is now 209 forints indeed. It turned out the marketing was such a success, they had to turn it down a notch not to run out of stock prematurely.

By reducing the cost of milk, Lidl has jumped on a global trend. In the past few months, the global market price of dairy products has slowly but steadily started plummeting. If this trend persists, it is questionable whether it makes sense to uphold the fixed price of milk until June.

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