Bar chart — Share of household food shopping done at supermarkets in five European countries, 1998 and 2008

The bar chart compares the proportion of household food shopping carried out in supermarkets in five European countries in 1998 and in 2008.

Overall, supermarket shopping grew in every country over the decade, and the ranking remained unchanged, with the UK first and Spain last in both years. Notably, the two southern European countries started from much lower levels but recorded the largest increases, so the gap between the leaders and the rest narrowed.

The UK was the clear leader throughout: supermarkets already accounted for 72 per cent of food shopping there in 1998, and this figure climbed to 85 per cent ten years later. Germany and France followed a similar pattern, rising from 65 to 74 per cent and from 60 to 71 per cent respectively, which meant that by 2008 more than seven in ten households' food purchases in all three countries took place in supermarkets.

Italy and Spain present a different picture. In 1998 supermarkets handled under half of food shopping in both countries — 45 per cent in Italy and just 40 per cent in Spain. By 2008, however, these shares had jumped to 62 and 58 per cent, rises of seventeen and eighteen percentage points, the biggest in the chart. Consequently, the UK's lead over Spain shrank from thirty-two points to twenty-seven.