Poland has lost 1,600 small shops in the past year, as shoppers increasingly turn to discount stores amid high inflation.
Poland had 27,600 small shops in June this year, which was down from 29,200 a year earlier, according to data from NielsenIQ, a market data agency, cited by Rzeczpospolita. Many kiosks have also closed.
At the same time, discount stores have multiplied, with 134 more opening in the past year. Sales at such stores increased by 6.5% in the first half of 2021.
Small stores in Poland have been hit by adverse market trends, including lower consumption of cigarettes and changing patterns of alcohol sales. Moreover, galloping inflation – which hit its joint highest point in two decades in July – is likely to have encouraged people to seek out cheaper shops.
According to data from M/platform, also cited by Rzeczpospolita, this trend is visible in how people are increasingly shopping in bulk. Relative to last year, the overall value of purchases increased by 4.2% in August but the number of transactions fell by 5.6%.
Recent research by CBRE, a consultancy, found that amid the pandemic, 51% of Poles say that they do less frequent but bigger shopping trips, reported the Polish Press Agency (PAP). Almost a quarter (22%) say they shop more online, another trend that has harmed small stores.
Previous evidence has also indicated that the Sunday trading ban introduced by Poland’s government in 2018, which was meant to help small, independent stores, has actually harmed them while benefiting discounters.
According to NielsenIQ, Poles do 35% of their grocery shopping by value in discount stores and medium-sized convenience stores such as Żabka, a chain that has expanded rapidly in recent years.
The CBRE study found that one in five Poles say they do most of their shopping at discounters, and only one in ten do it mostly at small local shops.
Experts put the changes down to a “consolidation” of trade in Poland. “Large and strong retail chains are present in all store formats, and their outlets are in every corner of the country,” said Konrad Wacławik, NielsenIQ’s head of retailer services for Poland.
This has, however, not helped the largest format of supermarkets in the country, which have been gradually closing. Last year, 13 of Poland’s more than 300 megastores closed. Some big chains, notably Tesco, have also been downsizing and laying off staff.
Brick-and-mortar stores now also face mounting challenges from e-commerce giants, such as homegrown online marketplace Allegro as well as Amazon, which this year entered the Polish market.
At the end of last year, Poland had an estimated 99,400 shops in total. While the downward trend in the number of shops has been present for a decade, it has recently accelerated, with twice as many shops closing in 2020 as in the previous year.
.Main image credit: Marcin Bajer/Flickr (under CC BY-NC 2.0)
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
