The “historic” price cuts were never detailed. Now, products have become more expensive, despite the promise.
The special promotion started on May 25th: the Lidl appeared to revolutionize prices on many products in Germany.
The German company announced a large-scale price reduction campaign. Allegedly, there would be permanent discounts on more than 500 products.
“These price reductions are part of a long-term strategic decision by Lidl”, explained the executive director, Friedrich Fuchs.
“Saving is more advantageous than ever”, sang Sarah Connor in the Lidl ad, to the tune of the German national anthem.
This is because it was “the biggest price cut ever“. “Historic” discounts claims the German company.
Aldi and other supermarket chains quickly followed suit and went after new discounts, and on a large scale. Aldi immediately offered discounts on 100 products.
The impact was created.
But…
…not everything was exactly as advertised.
First, the stores did not disclose the real reduction the price of each product. They did not indicate how much the customer would actually save. In general.
In the case of Lidl, the company did not even publish a list of products that would be discounted. Some were advertised with discounts of up to 35%, but little else.
An analysis of the data revealed, at the time, that the final invoice showed few differences. In practice, the customers were saving little.
Seven months later, new conclusion: Lidl increased os prices of different products.
The same economics officer checked more than 100 thousand invoices in detail and announced this Thursday that more than 25% of the products that were at a “permanent” discount in May are now more expensive.
On average, these products are 3.9% more expensive than when the promotion began seven months ago.
We did not find any strategy of this kind at Lidl Portugal.
