4 ms·

Currently, some of usually luxurious types of food are in lower demand in Germany than in previous years. It's basically a choice if you will first buy necessi

Currently, some of usually luxurious types of food are in lower demand in Germany than in previous years. It's basically a choice if you will first buy necessities like meat (+80% price increase), butter (+50%), wheat flour (+100%), pasta(+100%), sunflower oil (+500%), or asparagus (-11%).

DocTomoe 4y ago
It is not only a demand question, supply seems also low: Usually, at this point in the year, country roads should be plastered with strawberry- and asparagus-selling stands (at least where I live). I have seen not a single one. Even if I wanted to get some asparagus, I wouldn't begin to know where to get them, as both crops when locally grown are highly seasonal and not all supermarkets carry them. As a single IT guy with a reasonably good salary, I didn't notice much of the price increases - but I do notice when stuff becomes harder to get.
- MandieD 4y ago
  At least the supermarkets are starting to leave some items empty instead of spreading things out. How many times over the past two years did I think I'd lost my mind when I couldn't find something routine... no, I wasn't overlooking things, the supermarket employees were just trying to make it look nicer. I guess even they started to feel like this was some sort of gaslighting. "Oh, no, we're not out of dried yeast... we don't sell dried yeast!" For people on typical German IT/engineering wages, there's nothing approaching a problem getting enough to eat, or even a varied and balanced diet, but don't plan an evening around a particular recipe you don't already have all the ingredients to! Things are dicier for people like the old lady who looked to be on the verge of tears staring at artisanal canola oil in place of the 1 EUR/liter stuff she was used to buying. I'm glad I reacted to the glut of cheap strawberries from Greece this early spring by buying a couple of kilos and making jam out of them. Already stocked up my canning ingredients for wild plum season. I have a feeling there will not be short trees full of overripe fruit this year, though.
  - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
    > At least the supermarkets are starting to leave some items empty instead of spreading things out. How many times over the past two years did I think I'd lost my mind when I couldn't find something routine... no, I wasn't overlooking things, the supermarket employees were just trying to make it look nicer. I guess even they started to feel like this was some sort of gaslighting. "Oh, no, we're not out of dried yeast... we don't sell dried yeast!" It frustrates the shit out of me that grocery stores will move product to fill in empty space rather than make it obvious something is sold out, mainly because they don't move/remove price tags. As a result, items sit over the price tag for another product and it causes confusion. Customers don't read the small print indicating what the price tag is for, just what the price says on it. So, for example, if they're out of the 50-count Advil bottles, they'll fill in the empty space with 200-count bottles that normally sit next to them. Except now, you have 200-count bottles sitting over the 50-count price tag, and customers will expect the 50-count price.
    - mrtranscendence 4y ago
      > It frustrates the shit out of me that grocery stores will move product to fill in empty space rather than make it obvious something is sold out I work in the grocery industry. Shelf facings are set centrally by category managers and, although store management does have some discretion, if staff is willy nilly moving items just to cover up out-of-stocks that's absolutely against the rules. Not that this fact helps anyone, I guess. I'd definitely complain to management if you see that kind of behavior.
      - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
        Oh, believe me, I complained about it all the time when I worked there. Management specifically said they think empty shelves look bad and ordered their employees to do it.
MandieD 4y ago
Where did you find butter that's only 50% more?! I've got a tip on some 3 EUR/liter sunflower oil in exchange ;) Nothing quite like seeing Rapsöl (that's canola oil for North Americans) marketed as an artisanal product, for 5-6 EUR in little half liter dark bottles to preserve the nutty aroma, instead of clear plastic liter bottles for 1 EUR. Meat is "only" about 20% more than I was used to paying - though that's a side-effect of buying non-caged/free-range which was already way more expensive than the cheap stuff. Eggs are also about 20% more, but again, free-range.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  In the US, I've been buying more eggs lately, because free range eggs haven't gone up in price nearly as much as unmarked (i.e. probably caged) eggs. Now that the difference in price is small enough, I'm using them more... though part of that is also from cutting back on meat as well, which have the same trend of higher end cuts not changing but cheap cuts / ground meat rising quite a bit.
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    That's definitely an interesting effect - both surprising (you'd think everyone would be affected by supply chain issues) and unsurprising (of course the industrial outfits feel the pain more acutely when they've spent so much effort min-maxing their production of animal products).

DocTomoe 4y ago

It is not only a demand question, supply seems also low: Usually, at this point in the year, country roads should be plastered with strawberry- and asparagus-selling stands (at least where I live). I have seen not a single one. Even if I wanted to get some asparagus, I wouldn't begin to know where to get them, as both crops when locally grown are highly seasonal and not all supermarkets carry them. As a single IT guy with a reasonably good salary, I didn't notice much of the price increases - but I do notice when stuff becomes harder to get.

MandieD 4y ago
At least the supermarkets are starting to leave some items empty instead of spreading things out. How many times over the past two years did I think I'd lost my mind when I couldn't find something routine... no, I wasn't overlooking things, the supermarket employees were just trying to make it look nicer. I guess even they started to feel like this was some sort of gaslighting. "Oh, no, we're not out of dried yeast... we don't sell dried yeast!" For people on typical German IT/engineering wages, there's nothing approaching a problem getting enough to eat, or even a varied and balanced diet, but don't plan an evening around a particular recipe you don't already have all the ingredients to! Things are dicier for people like the old lady who looked to be on the verge of tears staring at artisanal canola oil in place of the 1 EUR/liter stuff she was used to buying. I'm glad I reacted to the glut of cheap strawberries from Greece this early spring by buying a couple of kilos and making jam out of them. Already stocked up my canning ingredients for wild plum season. I have a feeling there will not be short trees full of overripe fruit this year, though.
- Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
  > At least the supermarkets are starting to leave some items empty instead of spreading things out. How many times over the past two years did I think I'd lost my mind when I couldn't find something routine... no, I wasn't overlooking things, the supermarket employees were just trying to make it look nicer. I guess even they started to feel like this was some sort of gaslighting. "Oh, no, we're not out of dried yeast... we don't sell dried yeast!" It frustrates the shit out of me that grocery stores will move product to fill in empty space rather than make it obvious something is sold out, mainly because they don't move/remove price tags. As a result, items sit over the price tag for another product and it causes confusion. Customers don't read the small print indicating what the price tag is for, just what the price says on it. So, for example, if they're out of the 50-count Advil bottles, they'll fill in the empty space with 200-count bottles that normally sit next to them. Except now, you have 200-count bottles sitting over the 50-count price tag, and customers will expect the 50-count price.
  - mrtranscendence 4y ago
    > It frustrates the shit out of me that grocery stores will move product to fill in empty space rather than make it obvious something is sold out I work in the grocery industry. Shelf facings are set centrally by category managers and, although store management does have some discretion, if staff is willy nilly moving items just to cover up out-of-stocks that's absolutely against the rules. Not that this fact helps anyone, I guess. I'd definitely complain to management if you see that kind of behavior.
    - Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
      Oh, believe me, I complained about it all the time when I worked there. Management specifically said they think empty shelves look bad and ordered their employees to do it.

MandieD 4y ago

Where did you find butter that's only 50% more?! I've got a tip on some 3 EUR/liter sunflower oil in exchange ;) Nothing quite like seeing Rapsöl (that's canola oil for North Americans) marketed as an artisanal product, for 5-6 EUR in little half liter dark bottles to preserve the nutty aroma, instead of clear plastic liter bottles for 1 EUR. Meat is "only" about 20% more than I was used to paying - though that's a side-effect of buying non-caged/free-range which was already way more expensive than the cheap stuff. Eggs are also about 20% more, but again, free-range.

zdragnar 4y ago
In the US, I've been buying more eggs lately, because free range eggs haven't gone up in price nearly as much as unmarked (i.e. probably caged) eggs. Now that the difference in price is small enough, I'm using them more... though part of that is also from cutting back on meat as well, which have the same trend of higher end cuts not changing but cheap cuts / ground meat rising quite a bit.
- yellowapple 4y ago
  That's definitely an interesting effect - both surprising (you'd think everyone would be affected by supply chain issues) and unsurprising (of course the industrial outfits feel the pain more acutely when they've spent so much effort min-maxing their production of animal products).