New bottleneck: variety hardly available, "I only see one way out"
Created: 2022-06-23Updated: 2022-06-23 09:44
By: Jason Blaschke
The Marlboro Gold cigarettes are in short supply in many supermarkets, gas stations and kiosks.
It is still unclear how long the tobacco bottleneck will last.
Stuttgart – The war in Ukraine also poses major challenges for consumers in Germany.
The costs in almost all areas of life have risen massively - especially energy, fuel and everyday groceries are sometimes twice as expensive as last year.
And according to a study, many everyday products will become even more expensive in 2022.
"The worst is yet to come for consumers," says Aurélien Duthoit - Senior Economist at Allianz Trade.
Largest tobacco company is struggling with bottlenecks – limited deliveries
However, high prices for many groceries are not the only problem in retail.
As a result of the fighting in Ukraine, delivery bottlenecks are also a major challenge for retailers such as Kaufland and Lidl.
In the beginning, it was the shortage of cooking oil in retail that led to panic buying.
A large number of products have now been affected. Just a few weeks ago, for example, the sudden hamster purchases of rice made the headlines.
And for a few days now, the next bottleneck has been causing a shortage of cigarettes in Germany, which is becoming noticeable in more and more gas stations, supermarkets and kiosks.
According to reports from
WirtschaftsWoche
, the world's largest tobacco company, Philip Morris, can currently only deliver cigarettes to German retailers with restrictions.
According to a spokeswoman, there is a lack of “certain packaging sizes”.
company | Philip Morris International |
Headquarters | New York, United States |
Sales volume | $76.05 billion |
number of employees | 71,000 (2020) |
founder | Leopard Morris, Joseph Grunebaum |
Common cigarette brands are hard to come by - an expert reveals the reason
According to Philip Morris, the usual packs of 22 Marlboro Gold cigarettes are affected, which, according to
WirtschaftsWoche
, are currently hard to come by in many German stores.
The Philip Morris spokeswoman cites the "shortage of cardboard boxes" as the reason for the delivery bottlenecks, which leads to bottlenecks "in individual packaging sizes" - consumers would have to switch to other packaging sizes.
Philip Morris says it is working on changing the supply chain to fix the cigarette problem.
The Viennese Mayr-Melnhof Karton AG, which supplies corporations such as Philip Morris, also confirms that there is a particular shortage of packaging paper.
The reason given by Mayr-Melnhof is a plant in the Ukraine that is currently unable to produce due to the fighting.
But that is not the main reason, according to Viennese corporate circles.
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Rather, the producer of cigarette packaging does not get enough cardboard to cover the needs of the tobacco industry.
According to Philip Morris, it is not foreseeable how long the bottlenecks will last.
What is certain is that Facebook users are gradually getting fed up with delivery bottlenecks.
"Is everything coming from Ukraine now?" writes one user.
Another adds: "Ukraine must be a huge industrial country if every tiny particle is produced here."
Another Facebook user feels that every second product is becoming scarce.
But in addition to many critical voices, some very creative comments can also be read.
"I see only one way out: the deposit cigarette pack must be introduced," is one of them.
A user responded with “thank you for this meaningless message”.
Another user is really happy that he is not a smoker himself.
"Hopefully another reason to stop the stink."
