Czechia chooses favorite retailers, from drugstores to supermarkets

The dm-drogerie markt chain has been crowned the overall winner of the Czech Mastercard Merchant of the Year 2022 awards. Lidl, Kaufland, and Albert were among the public’s favorite stores.

A representative survey was sent out to decide which shop was the best according to criteria such as price, discount options, item availability, customer service, and payment methods.

The competition – celebrating its 20th anniversary this year – was “born out of an effort to give traders feedback on how they stand in the eyes of customers in comparison to their competitors,” said CEO of Mastercard Czech Republic Michal Čarný in a press release.

Čarný also spoke about how the shape of the Czech retail market has transformed recently. “In the first years of the awards, even some major players on the market did not accept [credit/debit] cards.”

Pharmacy Dr.Max and furniture chain IKEA occupied second and third place respectively in the overall rankings, behind dm-drogerie. Dr.Max also won the Pharmacy of the Year award.

IKEA was also overwhelmingly chosen as the Furniture and Home Accessories Retailer of the Year. Interestingly, the Swedish retail chain was also the Generation Z Business of the Year – it was the most popular shop in Czechia for people under the age of 27.

Lidl Czech Republic was the winner of the so-called Public Award, receiving the highest amount of votes (51,000) in an online poll in which anybody could vote. 

The German-owned food store, which is the largest merchant in the Czech Republic by sales and has over 300 stores, also won the Grocer of the Year award. Fellow giants Tesco and Billa came outside the top three.

In the public poll, hypermarket Kaufland came second and supermarket Albert was third. Kaufland also won the Responsible Merchant of the Year award for strong energy-saving measures.

In terms of individual categories, Alza.cz was judged to be the best electronics retailer, and the public voted German-based Deichmann as the best shoe retailer.

Decathlon was the winner of sportswear and equipment retailers, and pet supplies store Zoohit.cz won the award for the best e-shop.

Zalando, another German firm, was the Clothing Retailer of the Year. German OBI was judged to be the best homeware and garden supplies store. Megahracky.cz was the Toy Retailer of the Year, and Knihy Dobrovský was the best bookseller.

Amid highly elevated inflation and reduced spending power in the past 12 months, the awards show which retailers have offered the best remedies to curb the current crunch on Czechs' personal finances.