In recent years the duel between German discounters and supermarkets to attract customers has had no clear winner. According to German news magazine Focus and new figures from market research company GfK, sales in 2013 for both traditional supermarkets and discounters increased by 3.2% therefore discounters have managed to stop the progress of supermarkets; from 2010 to 2012 when supermarket chains such as Edeka and Rewe grew much more than discounters.
The average sales of supermarkets, cash & carry companies, discount stores and drug stores grew by 2.7%. According to Focus, 2013 was the best year economically of the past five years. A large part of this growth was due to price increases. The biggest price hike was with potatoes: compared to 2012, potatoes were 28.7% more expensive.
