Market Roundup: Brazil’s cash-and-carry phenomenon thrives in 2023

Brazilian “atacarejo” phenomenon hasn’t peaked yet

A specific feature of Brazilian retail parks has flourished over the past year, but analysts believe it can continue to grow. It’s called atacarejo — a portmanteau of “atacado” (wholesale) and “varejo” (retail) that is used to describe a kind of store that offers the buy-in-bulk advantages of a cash-and-carry for traditional supermarket customers.

State of play. According to NielsenIQ (NIQ), which monitors over 1 million points of sale in Brazil, the segment saw its sales rise by 14.4 percent in 2023 from a year before, above the average retail food growth of 10.9 percent.

• After a bumpy start, with the segment recording the first drop ever in same-store sales in April in the country’s Southeast, like in the metropolitan areas of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — the ones with most stores of this type — atacarejos got back on the path to growth.
• The increase in food prices at the checkout (7.5 percent) was important in driving last year’s result.

Be smart. Different from previous years, however, factors such as inflationary easing, a resilient job market, and Brazilians’ higher purchasing power boosted by income transfer programs and the growth of workers’ wage bills also contributed to increasing the volume of products purchased (7.6 percent). In other words, Brazilians were able to buy more items at each visit to these stores.

What they are saying....