A half-empty cart due to price increases with double-digit rates and the cut in promotions accompanied the spending of Italians. The podium of the highest price increase is for seed oil which marks a + 81% on an annual basis. Semolina pasta, the main dish of Italian families, increased by almost a quarter; extra virgin olive oil grows on average by 11%; butter exceeds + 30%; the grana sees a + 12% like ground coffee to end up with fresh eggs increased by 12%.
This is what emerges from the NielsenIq findings. Those used are for the week between 14 and 21 August 2022 and show a clear gap between inflation (8.4%) recorded by Istat and the real one of the shopping cart. Almost no packaged food and consumer products are escaping the price increases, while sales volumes are down.
On the budgets of families, whose spending capacity is reduced due to expensive energy, also weighs the cut in promotions that have helped to make ends meet up to now. The promotions are the result of the choices made by large-scale retailers and the brand industry that agree on offers and discounts. Now with the margins of both under pressure due to the international economic situation, offering discounts has almost become a luxury. Hence the decisive cut in promotional pressure.
The average prices of the fruit and vegetables sold by large-scale distribution seem to be like an ups and downs. Strawberries, cherries, apricots, apples also see substantial decreases while peppers, aubergines, melons, tomatoes also recorded heavy increases. Bauletto bread, taralli, crackers share increases between 10 and 20% and the white meat of chickens and turkeys increase by over a third. Fish consumption has seen a slowdown with fresh sea bream and sea bass which in August cost about a fifth more than in summer 2021 in the face of the cooling of the selling prices of mullet, trout and fresh cod.
And if you want to console yourself with a snack, it is better to think of mini portions since in this category the increases are 25% or less. The cost of French fries saw a + 19%, that of popcorn by 10%, croissants and other frozen desserts rose by 25%, ice cream and salty snacks by 23% and so on. Key products such as milk and its derivatives or those for pets are not escaping the marked price increases. Dog food has an average price of 2.4 euros per kilo (+ 14%) while food for cats costs 4.1 euros (+ 20%). Cleaning products and detergents also typically see increases below 15% with a few exceptions. For example, hand dish detergent touches + 26% and laundry soap + 18%. Expensive energy has caused the prices of paper-based products to skyrocket: toilet paper and handkerchiefs have risen by 22 and 27% respectively in twelve months together with napkins (22%) and rolls of paper (+ 24%) .