Some 94 per cent of the new stores opened last year by members of the Asociacion Nacional de Grandes Empresas de Distribucion (Anged) - the Spanish retail association - were supermarkets, according to a report from Europa Press. Of the 260 new stores opened in 2002, just 14 were hypermarkets.
The figures clearly show that the legislation introduced to curb the growth of hypermarkets and protect traditional retailers has failed, according to the secretary general of Anged, Fernando Olascoaga, cited in the report.
Not only have many of these traditional, often family-run, retailers disappeared as a result of competition from the supermarket sector, consumers have suffered doubly because of higher prices, Olascoaga said. Competition between hypermarkets has been shown to lead to significantly lower prices, he suggested, adding that large stores also contributed more in terms of employment opportunities and investment in the surrounding area.
The authorities need to understand that large stores can bring new dynamism to the local economy, attracting investments and creating jobs," Olascoaga told the news agency. But he said that the future of the hypermarket format in Spain was in serious doubt.
"It should be down to the consumer to decide where they want to shop, but in Catalonia, for example, it is all but impossible to obtain permission to build a new hypermarket," he said.
But, unsurprisingly, these views are not shared by another retail association, Asedas, which represents the supermarket sector. Ignacio Garcia Magarzo, head of Asedas, told Europa Press that the growth of the supermarket sector had not been stimulated solely by restrictions on hypermarket development but also by changing consumer demand.
"The supermarket format is subject to the same growth restrictions as other trading formats, at least in most Autonomous Communities," he said. "But because the economic impact [on local retailers] is seen as being less, it is usually easier to obtain permission."
But supermarkets also play an important role in meeting the requirements of a changing Spanish society, he suggested. There are now more people aged over 60, more single-parent families and more single people than ever before, and for many people in these social groups, the out-of-town hypermarket is not the most convenient place to buy their groceries.
Many of the large groups are beginning to understand this, Garcia Magarzo suggests, with companies such as Carrefour rolling out increasing numbers of supermarkets.