Colruyt food shopping cheaper in Flanders than Wallonia, study finds

Shoppers at Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt can pay up to 14% more for their weekly shop in Wallonia than in Flanders, according to a new investigation by RTBF and price comparison app Ping Price.

The investigation compared an identical basket of 50 products across 250 Colruyt stores in the country, with final receipts ranging from €238 to €270, a difference of €32 for the same shopping cart.

The price differences spanned a range of products: a tube of Colgate Max White activated charcoal toothpaste was €1.94 in one store and €5.49 in another. A pack of 66 Dreft dishwasher tablets ranged from €14.64 to €29.65 depending on the supermarket visited.

Price variation is not unusual for grocery stores, but “is even more true at Colruyt than at other large chains,” said Ping Price founder Christophe Echement.

“Colruyt can have up to seven different prices on the same day for the same product and during the course of a single year, this price will rise and fall fairly regularly.”

Colruyt has made alignment with the prices and promotions of nearby competitors a major part of its marketing strategy, meaning its prices are particularly volatile.

But what investigators note as remarkable is that stark differences can be found in shops only a few kilometers apart.

While many of the products have the same price in all Colruyt stores across the country, about half of the products in the basket used in the investigation are cheaper in Flanders than in Wallonia and Brussels.

The investigation deliberately targeted products that were more likely to have different prices.

“Some 12 of the 50 chosen products ultimately had the same or almost the same price, meaning that around a quarter of the products had the same price everywhere,” RTBF reported.

The report noted significant regional price differences. Vandemoortele salad dressing was 40% more expensive in Brussels and Wallonia than in Flanders, Miracoli pasta sauce was as much as 18% more expensive and even Spa water, which is produced in Wallonia, was sold for €5.65 in Wallonia compared to €5.40 almost everywhere else.

A notable exception to the trend was the Colruyt in Vilvoorde (Mutsaert) located on the Flemish side of the linguistic border, where prices were the same as in the chain’s Brussels stores.

Previous investigations into price differences at grocery stores across Belgium’s regions have reached similar conclusions.

“The density of supermarkets is higher in Flanders, which is inevitably a first element of competition,” said Echement.

Colruyt’s sales director Jean-Christophe Burlet emphasised that the chain keeps its finger on the pulse of a competitive market.

“Our goal is for our customers to get the best price compared to the regional competition,” Burlet said.

“We don't dictate the selling price, we follow the market. We follow the prices of our regional competitors and we see that in recent years, we have a few regional competitors such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo in the north of the country who are putting pressure on the market, so we’re adapting.”

In Wallonia, Burlet said Intermarché was the main competitor.

The investigation by RTBF and Ping Price did note a few counter-examples where goods were cheaper in Wallonia and Brussels than Flanders: a pack of four Dove soaps, a box of dried shallots, and a loaf of brown bread.

But Echement said the findings do not mean that French-speakers are deliberately being penalised over Dutch-speaking Belgians: “We can clearly see that when Albert Heijn, Lidl, or Aldi lower their prices, we see a change at Colruyt. But of course, Albert Heijn only exists in Flanders. So we cannot say that these are intentional price differences.”

According to Colruyt, the difference in price between some products used in the investigation can be explained by the fact that prices were recorded over two days.

“Our prices are adjusted daily,” Burlet noted.

And while the investigation pointed to a pattern of slightly lower prices in urban areas and higher prices in more rural areas, Colruyt said that it did not favour large cities: “It’s always the same logic of competition.”

Echement said that consumers looking to get the best price should look for promotions and make their comparisons before heading to the store.

“It’s always in the consumer’s interest to go to Flanders rather than Wallonia and to places where there’s a higher density of supermarkets,” advised Echement.

“If you find a place where there’s a Carrefour, a Delhaize, or a Colruyt, that’s where you're likely to find the best prices. At Carrefour, barely 500 or 600 products out of 13,000 will have a different price. And at Delhaize, prices will be the same in all supermarkets, with the exception of regional and local products.”

Despite its fixation on staying competitive in a tight market, Colruyt, like other grocery stores in Belgium, has slim profit margins: just €1 of profit on a shopping cart worth €100.

A report from the federal economy ministry indicated that in 2022, supermarkets achieved an average net profit margin of just 1.16%.