"Pancakes are cheaper": This is how customers react to expensive food prices

Created: 08/11/2022, 07:00

By: Michaele Heske

Thomas Maurer prefers regional vegetables.

Bought according to the season, it is often cheaper.

© Birgit Lang

Expensive groceries: Dorfen customers report on their shopping strategies, a supermarket manager on his observations.

Dorfen

– Saving when cooking, until recently it was all about calories.

This is changing due to rising food prices: More and more people are trying to be more careful about their business.

"Shopping behavior has changed," says Dorfen Rewe store manager Thomas Streitberger.

"People come to our branch once or twice a week and not every day anymore."

“Customers shop much more consciously and are increasingly turning to special offers,” says Streitberger.

Brochures are studied at home, prices are compared.

"Customers often have a shopping list with them." Organic products are currently rather neglected, according to Dorfener.

"Seasonal fruit and vegetables, on the other hand, are increasingly finding their way into the shopping trolley." In Dorfen, the construction of the bridge with the closure of the B 15 made things even more difficult.

But above all, inflation has now reached mainstream society.

Bettina Bauer from Dorfen works part-time, her husband is an engineer at a Munich automotive supplier.

Until recently, the household budget was enough.

"Now money is already tight from the 20th of the month," says the mother of three sons.

She also has to feed a dog and two cats.

Pubescent boys would eat your hair off your head, she says with a laugh: "That's a lot of what they eat."

Instead of meat, pasta with cheese sauce or vegetables is now increasingly on the table.

"I used to bake a lot of cakes, now I make pancakes - it's cheaper," says Bauer.

Before inflation, she often shopped at Tagwerk.

"I don't want to afford that anymore.

I even go market hopping and changing stores depending on where the best deal is.”

An elderly lady is standing at the checkout, looking confused at the receipt.

"Three euros the butter - that's crazy." She doesn't want to read her name in the newspaper.

"The neighbors immediately think we're slipping into poverty in old age." The weekly shopping for two people used to cost around 60 euros, now they pay a third more for the same goods.

But she and her husband are frugal: "Meat doesn't have to be on the table every day."

Peter Meindl has also lost his shopping mood.

“We do bulk shopping once a week.” In the past, he often went shopping briefly during the week.

"We'll save that today." Nobody knows what's in store for consumers, says Dorfener.

Thomas Maurer does not want to comment on the subject of inflation.

In the supermarket, it is particularly important to him that the fruit and vegetables are fresh and regional, says the 25-year-old from Dorfen.

He's only shopping for himself anyway.

Saving tips for the supermarket

Never go to the store without a shopping list: Less unnecessary items end up in the shopping trolley.

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Don't go shopping when you're hungry, because then it's even harder to resist the temptations.

Seasonal fruit and vegetables are usually cheaper.

Many things can be conjured up from cucumbers, beetroot or carrots.

Avoid pre-cut lettuce: It is often cheaper to prepare it yourself – and healthier as well.

Prepare your own snacks: Ready-made sausage rolls or coffee-to-go put a heavy strain on the household budget.

Tap water instead of mineral water: This saves money and protects the environment.

Drinking water is strictly controlled.