At this point, we could ask the question: what is missing from this list? What do super- and hypermarket chains have even more of than employees and waste? Products, of course.

Buying and selling products responsibly – meaning that everyone or everything involved in a product’s life from raw materials through producers to consumers was treated fairly – should be at the core of a responsible retail business. However, there are only a handful of examples of this that can be found on store shelves at present.

“It would be very important for retailers to take responsibility also through the products they sell, but at the moment we do not see this applicable in Hungary,” said Zsuzsanna Benkó, corporate affairs manager of Tesco-Global Áruházak Zrt. “We also offer organic, bio and fair trade products, since we have to make these choices available, but we have found that the average Hungarian customer’s main consideration is still the price. In our experience, they do not expect that kind of responsibility or sustainability from a product yet.”

In an effort to gauge consumer consciousness, the Budapest Business Journal conducted a random survey at the egg shelf of a Spar supermarket in downtown Budapest. The way how eggs are “produced” has been taken into consideration at Spar recently, from sustainability aspects like animal welfare to organic growth and local production. The company launched a campaign around two years ago to reduce the number of caged hens at battery farms, which included the group starting to sell its own-branded bio, cage-free eggs under its bio label Natur*pur, as well as a local cooperation between the Hungarian unit and a local civil association to educate customers about the issue. Spar Magyarország also offers, among others, the eggs of a Hungarian farming company that has mostly cage-free hens, while all of its egg-suppliers, speaking about either caged or cage-free eggs, are locals.

The results of the BBJ flash survey, which included four shoppers and one employee of different ages and education, partly underline the opinion of Benkó. None of the subjects, not even those familiar with the bad circumstances of a cage-kept hen, said they care about their welfare. But they also did not mention price as the main driver – instead, the main considerations were attractive packaging, healthiness, and whether the product was local.

So what should a retailer do if it feels the need to shift towards fair products? They can definitely promote and educate, and of course they can lower the prices of the products they want to highlight. But they depend on both producers and consumers, and this situation, which is undoubtedly more difficult than recycling PET bottles or office paper, requires bigger efforts.

“Unless consumer interest changes, producers will not push responsibility either,” said Tesco’s Benkó, adding that despite the negative trend, they are trying to shift towards a more responsible practice with their own-branded goods. According to Spar Magyarország, their own brands, both the higher-priced category (premium quality, bio, fair trade, gluten-free and lactose-free products) and the low-budget line, presently add up circa 21-22% of their aggregated sale. These own-branded products are generally sold cheaper than their international-branded matches, because through them the retailer can optimize production to suit consumer demand and reduce advertising costs.

Maybe these own brands, also known as private labels, could provide the spark to ignite responsible retail.