Dear reader,

With the memory of the summer holidays still recent, we face the last stretch of this 2012. A year in which the continuous expectations of economic improvements have ended up undermining the spirit and the attitude of exhausted consumers in the face of a not very promising panorama. The fear of the unknown due to the long crisis situation has generated a general feeling of insecurity that is inevitably leading to a containment of spending and consumption, and consequently affects the world of distribution.

A year 2012 that has veiled the retail sector in gray and that has forced both small and large to reinvent themselves to face the new strategies and authentic price wars that day after day become more aggressive. And precisely the prices are those that in recent weeks are experiencing their most convulsive period of the year with the VAT increases approved by the Executive. To delve into this topic, I recommend our section The Alarm Clock, where through 8 simple questions we offer you all the keys to better understand what it is and how it will affect us.

Faced with this adverse and, above all, changing situation, in which only those who know how to adapt to the new rules of the game will remain in the top positions, retail is experiencing a true revolution for survival.

This is the case outside of Spain for Aldi, whose jump to a mix brand strategy of own products and leaders in the same line as its main competitor Lidl is not a simple coincidence, or the not yet confirmed expansion of Mercadona to Italy of the Hand of a local chain. Within our borders, it is worth highlighting the latest movements of Carrefour, with its acceleration of the drive format, following the path that Alcampo began 5 years ago, and its recent opening in the Moda Shopping mall, in the image and likeness of the model initiated by Mercadona in the ABC center of Serrano. In the Shower section you will find an interesting article on the innovations that the distribution giant El Corte Inglés will undertake on the one hand,

All of them changes that seek to satisfy the demands of a new consumer who is less and less loyal, who opts for price as the main variable of choice and who also seeks an emotional shopping experience at the point of sale. On this matter, I encourage you to read in our Breakfast section the book by Elena Alfaro “The ABC of the shopping experience: how to generate experiences to sell more at the point of sale”, a practical guide with which to go from a store concept traditional to one whose differentiation is based on the experiences offered.

To finish, I suggest you attend the AECOC Congress, which will bring together the top leadership of large-scale consumption in our country in the best setting for collaboration and a meeting point for more than 1,000 businessmen and senior managers from the main manufacturing and distribution companies. .