Carrefour / Ahold: still penny-pinching A serving of reality is always worth chewing on. And sales figures on Thursday from French hypermarket and supermarket group Carrefour and Netherlands-based grocer Ahold provided just that. Ahold's underlying revenue was flattish for 2013, but down (year-on-year) in its main markets in the final quarter. Carrefour looked better with organic sales growth, excluding petrol, of a tad more than 2 per cent for the year and just above 3 per cent for the last three months. But here, too, it was a patchy performance at best. Not surprising, then, the stocks - on far-from-cheap 2014 earnings multiples of 17 and 13 respectively - led the sector down. Bloomberg's food retailers" index dipped 1 per cent. There were, of course, plenty of refinements and explanations. Currencies dented Ahold's headline numbers. And weather factors, a negative comparison with the hoarding before Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, were rolled out to explain a dreary two per cent fall in comparable fourth quarter US sales (which account for 60 per cent of the group total). In the Netherlands, it was online sales that drove the modest sales growth. At Carrefour, performance from its French hypermarkets (a quarter of group turnover) disappointed: only 1.4 per cent like-for-like growth in the fourth quarter. Sales elsewhere in Europe continued to slip (year-on-year) in the last three months. True, Spain managed a 0.2 per cent like-for-like rise (including petrol), its best performance since 2007, but Italy was dreadful with a near-6 per cent drop. Rising above this detail, the main message for investors is that, while European economies may be stabilising, consumers remain cautious and cost-conscious. Hardly stunning news. But as M&A activity heats up and market valuations get giddier, it is a timely reminder nonetheless. Investors need to keep their eyes and stomachs in line.