More Dutch run food trips to German stores
Better prices means more and more Dutch people are going across the border to Germany for their food shopping. German market research institute GfK has shown a trend in data from the border regions. Almost half (48 percent) of Limburg residents bought across the border once a month. A year ago, this was still 44 percent. Of their total expenditure on food, 4.8 per cent lands across the border.
Especially for wine and aperitifs (15.6 percent), soda and fruit juices (6.9 percent) and sanitary products (6.8 percent), across the border seems to be offering better deals. The low prices in Germany has mainly come from the high excise taxes that have to be paid in the Netherlands. "For a bottle of wine, you evidently pay more here", says supermarket expert Joop Holla from GfK. According to him, Dutch people who buy their products over the border, often stock many products in one go. The price per supermarket visit abroad is about a third higher than here." Also residents from Groningen, Overijssel and Gelderland spend more and more with our easterly neighbors, the data from GfK tells. For people from Brabant and Zeeland, however, the prospect of shopping in Belgium is less attractive. Prices in Belgian supermarkets are slightly higher than in the Netherlands. And so, the situation here is rather in reverse. According to Holla, there are Dutch supermarkets who spread catalogs in Belgium to tempt our southern neighbors to come buy their products in our country. The turnover from Dutch supermarkets have lately been under pressure. In November (min. 0.6 percent) and in December of last year (min.1 per cent) the turnover even went down. Last month, however, there was talk of a growth of 1.5 percent. The collective turnover amounted in January 3.18 billion euros, against 3.13 billion euros in January of last year. The plus in January has to do with weather influence, according to Holla. He says it's too soon to talk about a break in the trend.
