Skyrocketing inflation and rising prices seem to have an impact on consumer behavior and the offer of large retail chains. The German portal Lebensmittel Zeitung reported that Lidl supermarkets are planning to significantly narrow the offer of non-food goods. Under this, you can imagine clothes, electronics, televisions, tools and gardening supplies, which are also typical for the blue-yellow chain in our country. The Czech Ekonomický denník also picked up the report. Such types of goods are significantly more profitable for Lild, or have a much higher margin than traditional foods, baked goods or dairy products. Lebensmittel Zeitung reports that this offer was supposed to bring Lidl up to 15% of its turnover and be the second most profitable segment ever, but increasing inflation has reduced this share to below 10%. The offer will be significantly narrowed. wherever they can. And since this is only possible for food to a certain extent, we rather cut out premium services, purchases of clothes and, of course, expensive electronics. The news is to be confirmed by a similar move by the Aldi chain (it does not appear in Slovakia) and information from Asian suppliers of these goods. Slovak Lidl does not deny the information Lemensmittel Zeitung writes mainly about information related to the domestic German market. However, Fontech also turned to the Slovakian head office of the supermarket with questions as to whether a similar step – i.e. limiting the offer of non-food goods – also applies to Slovakia. According to Lidl, such an offer will definitely not be completely eliminated, but the chain did not specify whether the offer will be narrowed or not. “Lidl will continue to offer a weekly changing non-food assortment in the future. We believe that we will continue to successfully appeal to customers with a wide range of everyday products with an excellent price-performance ratio both in brick-and-mortar stores and in our online store,” Tomáš Bezák, head of Lidl’s communications department, told Fontech. Lild also offers this type of goods through its online e-shop, which is therefore expected to continue. However, the store admits that it has felt a change in the purchasing behavior of Slovaks: “We are registering an even greater interest of customers in our private brands, thanks to which we can offer a favorable ratio of quality and price. This applies across our entire product range, as private brands represent up to 80% of our offer,” says Bezák. LidlAj štěrňa and green energySlovenský Lild, on the other hand, according to its words, does not plan any further measures due to rising energy prices. However, we already use electricity produced exclusively from green sources. “In the past business year, we drew almost 39% of our energy from wind, 33% from hydropower plants and 28% from biomass. In addition, we are gradually installing photovoltaic panels on the roofs of our stores, and we produce some of the energy ourselves. We use energy-saving LED lights in all our stores,” states Lidl, adding that its stores are 20% more energy-efficient than similar buildings of the same nature. Thanks for reading Fontech. If you have an observation or found an error in the article, write to us at [email protected].