Compiled 21 March, updated 15 April 2026
Watch the video of the event “MDD Strategies and Marketplace – IDM” – Factory Positioning
1)The Battles of the 80s, 90s and early 2000s
Obviously once it worked, this commercial revolution was extended to other regions where Esselunga was present or was entering. I am referring to Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, and then on to Lombardy.
The second was definitely getting people to accept non-food and services with superstores: anything you didn’t eat, Esselunga didn’t like.
By services I am referring to:
loose fruit and vegetables
cut meats and cheeses
reservations – coded – in the delicatessen
perfumeries
audio video photo departments
video rental
photo development
phone cards
books and newspapers
tills with 10 pieces
sommeliers and wine shops
bars
spaces for children
home deliveries and then e-commerce
All these services were part of the Esselunga brand.
2) Strategic or tactical GD?
Let’s start with Esselunga’s mistake: managing the Fidaty database and NOT customising promotions.
I talk about this in my book [Le Ossa dei Caprotti], which I recommend you read to avoid making many mistakes, in the company and possibly in the family.
GD has remained tactical because, to my knowledge, no one has an integrated, single database.
And no one practices strategically:
- Customisation
- Home deliveries and e-commerce
3) The next 10 years
Before talking about technology I would like to talk about demographics and consumers :
1-The silver economy: Italy has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the over-65s accounting for over 24% of the total.
This demographic group, which is constantly growing, reaches about 14.4 million people, with a forecast to reach 35% by 2050.
The phenomenon highlights health, social and economic challenges, including an increase in single-person households and a high dependency ratio.
2- Immigrants : As of 1 January 2025, foreigners legally resident in Italy were estimated at around 5.4 million, representing 9.2% of the total population
The majority (over 70%) are non-EU citizens, with a strong concentration in the Centre-North. The number of foreign residents has grown over the years, with Romanians as the largest community.
With irregular immigrants it rises to around 6 million, 10% of the population.
1.7 million are of the Islamic religion
Legal entries (Flussi Decree)
- Planned quotas: For the three-year period 2023-2025, the government has planned the legal entry of a total of 452,000 foreign workers.
- New planning: During 2025, a new decree was published for the three-year period 2026-2028, which provides for about 500,000 new legal entries for work purposes.
In 2050, 50 per cent of the population will be elderly people – like us 😊 – and immigrants.
Going to the :
in Esselunga, in the late 1990s, I had a halal canned food offer, in some ‘more sensitive’ outlets.
Now, I understand, that Carrefour makes targeted offers for Ramadan, I am glad of that.
On the product offer and private label, I would like to add that I 100% agree that GD, in order to brand itself, has to remove some of the branded items: not all of them are needed, many are only supported by promotional contributions, which only serve to ensure visibility on the shelf, nothing else.
As far as services are concerned, I recall that:
in Esselunga we started e-commerce by imitating Delhaize which did DELIVERY BY HOME.
It is a very expensive system where even there, like Esselunga, we did well but made a mistake :
NOT CONSIDERING, as Amazon did, the subscriptions from which it derives excellent revenues.
E-commerce does not sustain itself as both Amazon and Walmart charge for their service.
And who add other revenues to their brand revenues, which include products, services and more (e.g. % from marketplace, advertising).
One could talk about AI but I think it is better to consider two factors:
the fact that – in many areas of Italy – there is saturation (and inefficiency)
the fact that many areas of Italy are no longer covered
Perhaps it is worth evaluating these two aspects before continuing to open very similar outlets next to each other. Also because I do not see particularly distinctive offers, at least in the North.
