Goods Have Started Disappearing From Russian Stores

• 16.09.2025, 13:01

Are the times of scarcity coming back?

Russian stores have reduced their assortment: in July there were 2.3% fewer food products and 1.8% fewer non-food products compared to the same month last year, writes "Kommersant" with reference to a study by the Nielsen company. The biggest drop was recorded in the segments of alcoholic beverages, children's goods and facial care products - by 5.6%, 5.1% and 7.3% respectively. Market participants explain the trend by the reduction of retail space in stores due to expensive rent and changing consumer habits of Russians, which forces to leave only the most popular items on the shelves.

In X5 Group ("Pyaterochka", "Perekrestok") reported that since the beginning of the war against Ukraine the assortment in their stores has decreased on average by 15-20%. In the summer, the company began to move to smaller formats, launching "Perekrestok Select": the area of each store is about 400 m² - three times smaller than the usual supermarkets of the chain. Magnit has taken similar measures, opening ultra-convenience stores under the new brand "Charge from Magnit" with an area of only 100 m². In "Lenta" also confirmed the course of reduction and optimization: only the most popular products are left on the shelves, and the vacated space is given to services and sublease. In addition, the new hypermarkets of the network are much smaller than those that the company opened before.

Infoline calculations, from January to July, the average area of grocery stores decreased by 0.7%, to 312 m². "Now retailers have come to the point at which it is possible to draw conclusions about the success of previously launched brands, and in conditions of limited shelf space withdraw from it those that are not popular with customers," - says the director of customer service "Nielsen" Saltanat Nysanova.

Format hypermarkets are giving way to compact stores "at home" and points with a high proportion of ready-to-eat food, says a partner of consulting company One Story Olga Sumishevskaya. According to her, most often in such stores one need is closed by one position, which allows to refuse less popular goods.

Russians are increasingly saving on everyday goods because of the rapid rise in prices, which even according to official data Rosstat since the beginning of the war reaches 40%. Thus, 58% of citizens consciously refuse certain goods that they bought before, 57% are trying to find analogs in lower price categories, and almost half (49%) choose hard discounters for shopping, the Romir study showed.

Official data show that at the end of August, price growth amounted to 8.3% year-on-year and 4.10% since the beginning of the year. Meat, gasoline and household services rose in price the most.