Battle for cooking oil: Security is now guarding the supermarket shelves

Created: 05/04/2022, 14:52

By: Natalie Margaux Rahimi

We have known hamster purchases for a long time.

However, the situation is currently getting worse.

In Hamburg, even security had to guard the cooking oil shelf.

Hamburg – Empty shelves in the supermarkets, triggered by hamster purchases: the Ukraine war has given many a new reason for hoarding.

Because the Ukraine is considered Europe's breadbasket and a lot of cooking oil also comes from the region, some consumers obviously believe that it is high time to stock up on a year's supply of this food.

In Hamburg, the fight for oil has reached a new level of escalation, because a supermarket had to have security guard the shelves in the meantime, reports 24hamburg.de.

Panic buying of oil getting worse: security guards supermarket shelves in Hamburg

No, that's not a joke.

Because that's how it should have been in a supermarket in Hamburg's Wilhelmsburg district.

Because the rush for oil was so great, the supermarket temporarily deployed a security guard to guard the shelves.

In the meantime, the purchase of cooking oil there, as in many other Hamburg supermarkets, is rationed.

This is also reported by the Hamburger Morgenpost.

Also, in many places, the sale of toilet paper, still a very German phenomenon, and flour and pasta is limited.

Hamster purchases: Security has to guard the cooking oil shelf in Hamburg.

(24hamburg.de assembly) © Sportfoto Rudel/imago & Cord/imago

This drastic measure in Hamburg is not the first incident that shows how fierce the fight for oil and other food is at the moment.

The topic of buying hamsters is also very present on the Internet.

On Twitter, an Aldi customer complained about a note on the oil shelf that alluded to hamster purchases.

The customer apparently found the question of whether one only buys oil because everyone does it "cheeky".

Another incident shows how confused customers are when the cooking oil shelves are well stocked again.

One user shared her experience on Twitter.

"Funny to watch: a woman standing in front of it in disbelief, took out a bottle, shook it, put it back, took it out again".

The woman apparently wanted to check whether it was real oil or whether the supermarket had used dummies.

Hamster purchases from Aldi, Lidl, Edeka and Co.: Completely unnecessary even for emergency supplies

Many people keep asking themselves why so many people tend to buy hamsters.

What motivates someone to buy masses of oil, flour or rice?

In Germany in particular, the supermarket shelves are packed to the brim every day and are extremely diverse.

Nobody really needs to be afraid of standing in front of an empty supermarket one day.

However, it is possible that these people want to stock up in case of a disaster.

So that, in the event of a war or prolonged storm, flood or other crisis, they can go for days without shopping.

However, hamsters are not necessary for this.

This is also shown by the shopping list for a ten-day emergency supply from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BKK).

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser recently said in the Handelsblatt that it makes sense to have such an emergency supply at home.

This emergency supply does not contain liters of oil or a shopping trolley full of flour and rice.

Aldi, Edeka, Lidl and Co.: groceries are not only scarce, but above all expensive

Hamster purchases are currently not an option because many foods are currently too expensive.

Cooking oil sometimes costs up to five euros per liter.

This also caused a lot of trouble for Kaufland customers, which they shared with others on Twitter.

It's good that there are a few tricks in the supermarket that consumers can easily use to save money.