Empty supermarket shelves: when hamster purchases are added to delivery bottlenecks
Created: 03/14/2022, 16:16
By: Jennifer Battaglia
Empty shelves can be seen again and again in supermarkets and discounters.
© RobertMichael |
dpa
The Ukraine war has direct repercussions for Germany.
Energy prices are exploding, and not all groceries are available in supermarkets.
Munich – If you walk through supermarkets and discounters these days, you will always discover empty shelves.
The Ukraine war is also having direct effects in this country.
On the one hand, there are delivery bottlenecks, on the other hand, people are showing a different buying behavior: there is more hoarding.
War in Ukraine: Delivery bottlenecks for some products
As was already known at the end of February, cooking oil is becoming scarce in many supermarkets.
Sunflower oil in particular is affected.
According to
Lebensmittel Zeitung
, the reasons are complex.
In addition to the Ukraine war, crop failures and corona-related staff shortages are also said to be the cause.
Discounters and supermarkets reacted immediately: Aldi, Rewe, Lidl & Co. partially rationalized sales so that only a few bottles of oil can be purchased per customer.
As the dpa now reports, the situation could deteriorate further.
According to the Association for the Oilseed Processing Industry in Germany (Ovid for short), Germany covers almost all of its sunflower oil requirements through imports.
The Ukraine is the most important export country for sunflower oil worldwide.
But there will be no supplies because of the war.
The association therefore expects that the supplies of sunflower oil will only be sufficient for a few weeks.
However, consumers could easily switch to other oils - there is no shortage here.
War in Ukraine makes people hoard
The fact that people are currently stockpiling more food also leads to empty supermarket shelves.
While consumers in Germany mainly hoarded toilet paper at the beginning of the corona pandemic, it is now the turn of certain staple foods.
In the meantime, not only cooking oil, but also flour, yeast or wheat products such as pasta or bread are hoarded.
Social media users are appalled.
A Twitter user writes "Dear horders, preppers, panic hamsters - may your oil go rancid and the moths enjoy your oil".
Another commented casually: "That moment when flour costs more on eBay classifieds than cocaine on the Darknet." Another user sends the tweet: "Bread sold out, flour sold out, milk sold out, oil sold out - but there was gin, that's it a sign, right?”
It is unclear how the situation will develop in the coming days and weeks.
The Federal Association of Freight Transport and Logistics fears that the blatantly high fuel prices could further affect deliveries to supermarkets.
Association leader Dirk Engelhardt told the
picture
that the situation is currently even more tense than during Corona.
(jb)
