Aldi, Lidl and Co.: Why experts expect further price increases
Created: 05/18/2022, 02:35 p.m
By: Fee Halberstadt
When supermarkets raise prices, customers resent them more quickly than discounters.
(Iconic image) © Georg Wenzel/dpa
Many groceries are becoming more and more expensive.
Lidl and Aldi in particular have great trust among consumers.
Do they even set the prices?
Kassel – Many groceries are now more expensive than at the beginning of the year.
Many different products are affected by the price increases, from milk and meat products to cooking oil and flour to mustard.
On average, food prices in April 2022 were 8.6 percent higher than in the same month last year, according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office.
In a comparison by the Focus Online portal, they show the percentage by which individual food prices in shops such as Lidl, Aldi, Rewe, Edeka and Co. have risen.
Tomatoes showed the largest increase compared to the previous year with almost 40 percent.
Sunflower oil is up 36.7 percent and butter is up 31.1 percent.
However, some products were also cheaper, including carrots, peppers, cauliflower and white cabbage, which cost between ten and around 22 percent less.
Sparkling wine, prosecco, champagne, wheat beer, orange juice and frozen seafood also show a slight price drop.
product | Increase compared to April 2021 |
---|---|
tomatoes | 39.4 percent |
pasta | 24.7 percent |
cucumbers | 31.4 percent |
butter | 31.1 percent |
sunflower oil | 36.7 percent |
(Source: Focus Online) |
Food price increases: Aldi, Lidl and Co. set the prices
However, these price reductions are the exception.
Most groceries have instead become more expensive.
The reason for this is, among other things, the Ukraine conflict, which is causing energy costs to rise enormously.
Here, too, there is a lavish increase of up to 77.4 percent, as Focus Online reports.
These rising energy costs are affecting many processes in food manufacturing, packaging, transportation and storage.
Many people are overwhelmed by the expensive prices, but there are tricks such as shopping lists and special offers that help to save money on groceries.
Consumer expert Chehab Wahby is of the opinion that discounters will raise their own brand and branded goods prices.
In a conversation with the Handelsblatt at the end of April, he said: "The discount is the impetus for prices in the market." If that happens, supermarkets like Rewe and Edeka would soon follow suit.
Whaby isn't the only one with this thought, as Peter Kenning also expressed a similar prognosis to Chip.
Aldi, Lidl and Co. as sources of inspiration: Supermarkets base their prices on discounters
"If the discounters increase the prices, other retailers, such as the supermarkets, follow them," said the professor of business administration at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
The two get support from another expert, Carsten Kortum, who heads the business administration course "Trade" at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW).
"The price increases have been specified by Aldi Nord/Süd in recent months, and some of the other retailers followed on the same day."
The Lebensmittelzeitung confirms the assumption of the experts.
As early as mid-March, she was reporting on almost 400 products that were becoming more expensive at Aldi and it wasn't long before Rewe and Edeka followed their competitor.
In contrast to the supermarkets, the discounters have a great deal of basic trust among consumers.
That's why they set the prices.
In contrast to Rewe and Edeka: "If they increase the prices too much, the customers will very quickly resent them," says Wahby.
(Fee Halberstadt)