Trade-down is the most consistent behavioural signal across Europe this quarter, and it shows up most clearly as a search contest: the discounter against the national mainstream grocer, inside each market.
The within-market gaps line up like a league table. Italy is the sharpest front, Lidl out-gaining Esselunga by a wide margin. Spain and Austria follow, Lidl against Mercadona and Billa. Then Germany against Edeka, Sweden against ICA, and France, softest of all, against Carrefour, consistent with France having largely exited the cost-of-living phase.
The lesson is that a continent-wide behaviour is fought on local ground. The direction is the same everywhere; the intensity, and the names, are not. A pan-European grocery or FMCG strategy that treats "trade-down" as one setting will be too aggressive in France and too gentle in Italy.
We read this from anchored Google Trends search, with international brand movement de-meaned across markets so that what remains is the local signal, not a global campaign. Every figure names its source.