Consumption: In the Grand-Est region, the crisis has changed the habits of cross-border workers
A hub for cross-border cooperation in the heart of Europe, the Greater Region comprises several territorial entities spanning four countries: Germany, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. This large cross-border area is characterized by several major cross-border commuter flows, with Luxembourg and the Saarland as the main destinations and Lorraine as the main “source.”
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, University of Montpellier; Colette Grandmontagne, University of Lorraine; Hélène Yildiz, University of Lorraine; Mathias Boquet, University of Lorraine; Nicolas Dorkel, University of Lorraine and Rachid Belkacem, University of Lorraine
These borders between Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg are characterized by very large and growing flows of cross-border workers. Luxembourg alone attracts more than half of the cross-border workers in the Greater Region. The Luxembourg City metropolitan area is the top destination for cross-border workers residing in France, ahead of Geneva. In addition to the French working in the Grand Duchy, there are also Belgians and Germans. As a result, cross-border workers account for nearly 44% of Luxembourg’s labor force.
University of Luxembourg, mapping by M. Helfer
In mid-March, the temporary closure of borders and the introduction of border controls disrupted the daily lives of residents living near the border, affecting both their employment and their spending habits—which also determine why they travel: food, clothing, leisure, equipment, etc. In Luxembourg, for example, the widespread shift to remote work made it painfully clear to various businesses just how significant a portion of their revenue these employees accounted for.
Relocalized consumption
Our survey, conducted during the lockdown in March–April 2020, shows that, typically, 25% of households in the Grand-Est region living within 25 km of a border regularly shop abroad for essential goods, and 31% do so occasionally.
Among these households, while 14% and 32% report no impact or a minor impact on their consumption, 35% and 18% of respondents report a moderate and significant impact, respectively.
The severity of the impact is also linked to the distance from the border. Those who report having been significantly impacted live, on average, 7.6 km from the border, compared with 12.6 km for those who report not having been impacted.
Above all, however, remote work—which became widespread and was widely adopted during the spring lockdown—led people to shift their shopping to locations closer to home, particularly where sufficient local options were available. This has affected the various patterns of cross-border consumer spending, as both impulse purchases and those tied to organized travel have declined along with the flow of workers.
Between a Break and an Opportunity
In fact, crossing the border for work inevitably leads these workers to make convenience purchases, which are designed to make their daily errands easier. Marketing literature shows that consumers integrate their purchases into their daily routines: buying bread on the way to and from work, taking advantage of a trip to run an errand to stop by a clothing store, and so on.
Furthermore, while purchases of products taxed differently on either side of the border are driven by budget optimization, purchases motivated by hedonistic considerations (clothing, leisure activities) or by careful planning (cars, household appliances) highlight criteria such as quality or the complementary nature of the offerings. Consumers therefore do not hesitate to compare prices at retail outlets on both sides of the border. And this is without even considering the trade diversion caused by digitalization…
From a commercial perspective, the border has thus far served as a fertile ground for the implementation of various consumer strategies, straddling the line between disruption and opportunity. For their part, businesses’ location strategies were based not only on traffic flow but also on the population density within the catchment area. However, if trends toward local consumption take hold as a result of the crisis, this role could partially fade away.
Béatrice Siadou-Martin, Professor of Management Sciences, University of Montpellier; Colette Grandmontagne, Associate Professor, University of Lorraine; Hélène Yildiz, Associate Professor (HDR) in Management Sciences, University of Lorraine; Mathias Boquet, Associate Professor, University of Lorraine; Nicolas Dorkel, Research Engineer in Spatial Analysis, University of Lorraine and Rachid Belkacem, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Lorraine
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