Easter is becoming more important for supermarket, ‘but Christmas cannot be surpassed’

• Jeroen Schutijser

  Reporter Economy

Easter stollen, baking rolls, croissants, eggs, rollades, tompoucing: if it is up to the supermarkets, we are eating the whole Easter weekend, especially. “Whether Supers van Easter want to make the new Christmas? Well, you can’t get up in terms of Christmas. Christmas is not to be exceeded,” says retail expert Paul Moers. “But Easter will be an important week this year for the supermarkets. That is certainly.”

He mainly points to the unrest in the world. “We live in a time of great uncertainty. That is why people want to make it extra cozy at home. And they also have money for that.” Dirk Mulder, economist at ING, sees that Easter is becoming increasingly important.

“Jumbo, for example, now also focuses on influencers that make videos of beautiful products. Especially for young people. But Easter is of course different from Christmas. At Easter, perhaps more cheerfulness comes to look: darcisses, spring, lambs, flowers. You can also make a good moment together.”

According to Mulder, the editions for the Christmas dinner are much higher than for Easter breakfast and brunch. “That’s why supermarkets try to involve Easter dinner.” Figures from market researcher Yougov (formerly GFK) show that the conversion of Easter and Christmas are growing towards each other in recent years. In 2022 the turnover difference was still 26 percent in favor of Christmas, last year Christmas was still ‘only’ 6 percent for Easter.

The attentive TV viewer has been thrown to death for weeks with Easter advertisements from supermarkets such as Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Lidl and Aldi. Screenforce, the organization that deals with TV advertising of De Ster, RTL and SBS, reports that in recent years between 25 and 35 million euros in advertising messages around the Easter have been broadcast.

“At Christmas that was between 56 and 61 million euros,” said Screenforce. “An emerging phenomenon at the supermarkets is that they are increasingly coming up with separate Easter products. That will also explain why the turnovers are going to the level of Christmas.”

Market leader Albert Heijn has 371 paas products on the shelves this year. Last year there were 322. “Because we notice that people embrace traditions, and therefore also want to celebrate Easter together,” says AH. “Christmas cannot be compared to Easter. At Christmas, the emphasis is on eating in the evening, at Easter it is mainly about breakfast and lunch/brunch. Easter is celebrated, but it remains absolutely less than Christmas.”

Quirine de Weerd of Lidl Nederland says that Easter and Christmas are the heyday for retail. “Easter is an energetic and cheerful party that you are celebrating with the family. As a trend we see surprising flavors this year. We already saw that at the Dubai-Sinterklaas letter and we now see, for example, pistachio on the turban, and pistachiopasta. On Tiktok, things like that. There are people who want to participate with trends.”

The spokesperson for supermarket chain Plus notes that Easter is quite late this year. “That is why there is more chance of good weather and we expect that customers can sometimes work out extra with outside brunch or bubbling.” Jumbo focuses on ‘being together’. Under the motto: “Ultimately, it’s not about how you celebrate it, but with whom.”

The high price of chocolate is a thing with this Easter. Four months ago, many chocolate letters remained unsold, now supermarkets see that customers are just about to throw chocolate Easter eggs in the cart.

Sales figures from marketing agency Nielsen IQ show that so far about 40 percent fewer Easter eggs have been sold in the supermarket compared to last year. “Because the average kilo price of Easter eggs has risen by around 50 percent, it is not surprising that the sales of Easter eggs are disappointing this year,” says analyst Marten Suurmeijer.