Germany’s Grocery Growth Story isn’t About Space
German grocery retail has barely grown its physical footprint since 2019. Per McKinsey and EuroCommerce's State of Grocery Retail Europe 2026, German retail space actually contracted slightly over that period (-2.4%), while the European average expanded by 4.6%.
And yet sales per square metre in Germany rose 38.9% over the same period – ahead of the European average of 29.8%. Some of that refl