Supermarket battle gives a boost to Mayo town
Increased competition between SuperValu and ALDI is attracting more shoppers to Ballyhaunis, a local store owner has claimed.
There are signs that the more competitive supermarket landscape is drawing more footfall into the East Mayo town of Ballyhaunis.
Jeff Nolan, owner-operator of the local SuperValu, said his store saw lots of new faces in the busy December period.
“We saw customers who we’d never seen in the store before, shoppers from the Knock and Kiltimagh side especially who we’re imagining went to Claremorris before,” he explained.
According to Mr Nolan, shoppers are increasingly splitting their shop between two supermarkets – the discount chain ALDI, which carries a lower number of products, and SuperValu whose larger range of products also includes wider fresh produce and bakery offerings. Larger footfall may be compensating for SuperValu sales lost to Aldi, even if new shoppers are spending less in any one store.
Mr Nolan reports a very strong December, with sales down by just 4% to 5% compared to the same period in 2022, prior to ALDI’s opening in Ballyhaunis. But sales also matched those of the same period in 2022 during the two weeks of the peak December shopping season, explained Mr Nolan.
Price rises remain an issue, but a less pervasive one. After a year of price increases, Mr Nolan sees inflation peaking in early 2024.
“It’s not yet past. We see inflation at 3% or 4% in the first three months of the year and then we hope to see prices levelling off.”
With oil and energy prices back significantly across the European Union, retailers in continental Europe have destocked major brands due to their failure to lower prices in line with falling energy costs. For example, French supermarket chain Carrefour dropped Pepsi cola after the latter refused to lower its prices.
The inflation of recent years coupled with ALDI's presence in Ballyhaunis means some trends are set to stay at Mr Nolan’s store.
“In 2022 and 2023, we saw a large increase in sales of own brand and we expect this trend to continue in 2024, especially as own brand or private label products are key to our pledge to match ALDI prices on all products,” the store owner explained.
Discount vouchers, handed out in-store and through the supermarket’s online app, are key to draw “increasingly savvy” shoppers, said Mr Nolan.
The store is meanwhile gearing up for the introduction of the deposit return scheme in February. That means customers will return plastic packaging items like plastic bottles in return for vouchers redeemable in store.
“The staff have been trained and the systems are in place,” explained Mr Nolan.
Online purchases and home delivery constitute approximately 8% of sales at SuperValu Ballyhaunis. This includes older customers who phone in their purchases. The figure is back at the level of home delivery done during Covid-19 when online and home delivery accounted for up to half of sales.
