Consumer companies pitch discounts, bargain products as economic malaise looms

Unilever, Procter & Gamble and other major consumer goods manufacturers are touting lower-priced brands, smaller packages and discounts to woo penny-pinching shoppers struggling through the most severe global recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"We'll give this more emphasis,” Nestle CEO Mark Schneider said last week after reporting third-quarter sales, “because affordability, especially when it comes to the economic consequences of COVID, will become ever more important." Many companies initially pulled back on price-focused promotions, such as ‘buy one, get one free,’ in March and April when coronavirus-related shutdowns drove shoppers to hoard everything from hand sanitizer and cleaners to toilet paper and flour.

As COVID-related costs rose, companies including P&G managed to raise prices as stimulus in countries such as the United States kept cash registers ringing. But a US$600 weekly U.S. federal aid program ended in July and prospects for any follow-up government stimulus look bleak.

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