As of: March 14, 2024, 10:27 a.m
By: Kai Hartwig
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Food prices are rising significantly.
A Kaufland customer finds a very old receipt that takes her back to memories.
Munich – Almost everyone probably knows the saying about the “good old days”.
Some people claim that everything used to be better.
Whether this is really the case remains to be seen.
At least a lot has changed when it comes to prices in supermarkets and discounters.
In the branches of Rewe, Edeka, Kaufland, Aldi, Lidl and other companies, things are currently more expensive than ever.
Inflation and the war in Ukraine have contributed to the price increase of many products.
Customers now have to pay more money for many things than they did a few months and years ago.
It's easy to wistfully reminisce about earlier times when shopping expenses were even lower.
Kaufland customer finds old receipt - product prices were significantly cheaper back then
A Kaufland customer accidentally made a discovery that took her back to another time period.
She posted a photo of her find on Facebook and wrote: “Found a bookmark while searching for a book.
November 9, 1996 receipt.” The receipt came from a time when in Germany payments were not made with euros but with the D-Mark.
Since January 1, 2002, German citizens have been paying with euro cash, the exchange rate of which was fixed to the German mark in 1999.
One euro is worth 1.95583 German marks - almost twice the previous currency.
If you use this conversion formula as a basis for comparison, the receipt found by the Kaufland customer makes the 1990s seem almost paradisiacal.
The Kaufland customer got Onko brand coffee (probably the 500 gram pack) in 1996 for 5.55 D-Marks.
Onko was later taken over by coffee manufacturer Jacobs; the comparable 500-gram pack of Jacobs Auslese now costs 5.79 euros, according to kaufland.de.
In addition, 5 kilos of onions cost the user just 2.79 D-Marks at the time.
Today, the 1-kilo nets cost well over one euro, which is almost four times more expensive than in the mid-1990s.
A customer found this Kaufland receipt from 1996 at home.
© Screenshot / facebook.com
Kaufland receipt from the 1990s: “Today the receipts are four times as big”
Some other Facebook users raved about the former German currency in the comments on the receipt find.
“I want the DM back,” it said, or just “DM” along with an emoji with hearts in the eyes.
A user also highlighted another detail about the old receipt in comparison to today's receipts.
“Today the receipts alone are four times larger,” she wrote.
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She is absolutely right about that.
Customers are constantly complaining these days about huge receipts that they receive in the supermarket for even very small purchases.
A Rewe customer was upset because there were “more advertising than purchases” on the receipt.
Penny also attracted the anger of a consumer when he received a receipt that was 71.5 cm long for five items.
D-Mark to Euro: The earlier-later comparison is flawed when it comes to pure exchange rate conversion
When it comes to the question of costs, however, the earlier-later comparison described is flawed.
Simply comparing the exchange rate would correspond to more than doubling the prices at that time.
However, this simple calculation is not correct.
A simple conversion creates a deceptive comparison that is not meaningful.
In addition, the development of inflation and purchasing power in Germany must be taken into account in order to create a correct comparison value.
Editor's note: This text has already appeared in the past. Many readers were particularly interested in it. That's why we're offering it again.
Overall, a slightly different picture emerges.
In short, purchasing power in Germany has been falling steadily from year to year since the late 1980s.
However, not to the extent that this would represent an exchange rate conversion from previous D-Mark prices to today's Euro prices.
(kh)