By Dimitra Manifava

The latest weapons being employed in the retail commerce sector to cut costs as well as to respond to changing consumer demands resulting from the country’s ongoing economic crisis are stocking fewer products on supermarket shelves, offering goods in smaller or cheaper packages and cutting the number of branches they operate.

It’s not that supermarkets have suddenly discovered that small is beautiful, but rather that small is more attractive -- and doesn’t scare customers away.

Nielsen research data show that supermarket sales volumes in the first half of the year declined by 5 percent on an annual basis, amounting to 4.15 billion euros against 4.37 billion in the January-June 2011 period.

Notably, the decline at hypermarkets has been even greater as market professionals estimate it at over 10 percent because consumers are turning to medium-sized and smaller stores instead. The reason is that these larger stores are not usually located in residential areas and generally require more time and fuel for shoppers to reach them, while their well-stocked shelves are seen as a temptation for consumers who wish to stick to the essential items on their shopping lists.

With the above in mind, a number of major chains have been opening small neighborhood branches in a bid to win over consumers. Consumer traffic at the 256 Carrefour Express stores has already grown considerably, according to company officials.

AB Vassilopoulos has also started getting more involved in this end of the market, with AB Shop & Go stores, at some 100 to 120 square meters in size, now bearing the company’s logo to get a more integral role in the group. The first AB Shop & Go store opened last spring in Galatsi, north of the center of Athens, with stores in Kypseli, Zografou and Koukaki following. The head of AB Vassilopoulos and executive vice president of the Delhaize group, Kostas Macheras, says that these outlets have been doing very well to date.

These smaller stores’ operations have been bolstered by the fact that the industry has also decided to rationalize its products by retaining only the most popular. “In the last four years, we have been taking about 1,200 product codes off the shelves annually. Now we expect the suppliers to do it by themselves,” says Macheras. Even hypermarkets, which currently carry about 40,000 product codes, are soon expected to drop to 30,000 codes.

Another rising trend coming in response to the new conditions is that of smaller packages: For instance Unilever has launched a special series of products for Greece, in smaller packages, under the name of the old local brand ELAIS, including margarine, mayonnaise, olive oil etc, which look like the regular products but will cost 20 percent less and will not be advertised as much as the originals.