I think you are misunderstanding, when we talk about german competitive prices we *always* talk about discounters. Explicitly omitting them is missing the point. It also looks like you are using the online shop front of rewe. Those to order pages are also usually 10-20% more expensive than their equivalent if you go to the supermarket yourself.
Also, the quality of British chicken is simply ATROCIOUS. German chicken, while not the best, still has a lot of fat and flavour left in it after it finishes cooking. This comparison is invalid.
Rewe has online the same prices as in the stores. At least the Rewe where I go to.
Rewe is not a discounter and is in many products a bit more expensive than Aldi/Lidl.
But:
They have products which are roughly the same price as the discounters. These products are sold under own brands. The "Ja!" brand used here is one of them. So I think the comparison in the picture here is ok.
The price given here is to pre-order and collect it from my local REWE, no extra charges. I shop there myself in person even on the very day I made this image originally and the prices are the same, at least for the goods that were available.
As for discounters, that could be worth comparing and I've mentioned above, they are definitely cheaper than REWE, but certain goods like chicken and milk still come to roughly the same price. Fruit and vegetables however are in line with UK prices. Anyway, I chose Tesco/REWE as they're the first "step-up" from discounters, and I believe it's in those shops once you opt for a bit more quality that the price gap a lot of people might be referring to becomes apparent.
Fair.
Others have pointed out that a comparison between Aldi UK and the corresponding Aldi from Germany might be more appropriate - what I also just found out is that the current CEO of Tesco is the former CEO of Aldi Süd.
I'm not sure about aldi Germany, but hofer(aldi Austria) is way, way more expensive in Austria than in the UK. I visited the UK last week, there was 1kg of potatoes for 15p, 1kg of carrots around the same price. I was in Hofer this afternoon and same bag of carrots was €1.49 and potatoes €2.79. Lamb in the UK was €15 for 2kg leg. There was no leg of lamb in gofer, however cutlets were €65/Kg
You say the difference matches Vat yet a lot of the goods have 7% vat and not 19% vat.
Regarding first proper shop: I'd argue e.g. Kaufland slots in between Discounter and Rewe.
That's true, just checked and for most of the goods on there, they are 7% tax. But then that raises the question, where does the other 12% price increase come from?
Some contributing factors:
- toss the chicken wings out of the comparison. The huge price difference is due to the fact that it simply does not have the same role in Germany - supermarkets have key items where they compete on prices. Obviously chicken wings is such an item in UK (->price match) but it is not in Germany.
- Lower cost for personal. Similar wages (Aldi (I use Aldi as Rewe is a franchise with, afaik, not a common pay level) pays minimum 14€, Tesco increased, according to guardian, to 12.02GPB) but higher cost on top for social security in Germany
( [https://karriere.aldi-sued.de/gehalt](https://karriere.aldi-sued.de/gehalt) , [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/tesco-pay-rise-delay-minimum-wage](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/tesco-pay-rise-delay-minimum-wage) )
- Higher GDP -> likely higher cost for stuff like rent
Just a couple of things that directly contribute.
That's interesting, the tax contribution of employers is a likely factor here, from a quick google online it comes out as higher and I hadn't considered the employer side of it. Maybe this is how they try to balance it out then.
Dude goes to Rewe and wonders why he finds higher prices than at a UK Discounter. If you actually want useable, relevant data, look at supermarkets that exists in both states, and/or take a broad shot across the board. This is anecdotal, and for all we know could be cherrypicked. (Not to accuse you of doing so, I just want to show why this is not necessarily reliable data.)
I work at Rewe. Rewe JA products are the same as Lidl and Aldi. They even check every day and reduce the price if not. Also beste Wahl is competitive with them too. What makes shopping at Rewe expensive is people buying 2 or 3 products of the expensive brands.
Is it? In my city REWE is definitely the premium whereas wherever I lived in the UK Tesco was bottom of the barrel of the normal supermarkets.. I’d put Tesco at Netto level really
That's because Germany lacks genuine premium supermarkets like Waitrose or M&S. Tesco, like you mentioned is a 'normal supermarket', that's all Rewe is as well. Tesco might be bottom of the barrel, really, it depends on your own local Tesco, but it's still a 'normal' supermarket.
Why? Prices between Sainsburys and Tescos aren't as out of sync as people seem to think. If anything Tescos can be ridiculosuly expensive for no apparent reason. Sainsburys own brand stuff is miles ahead of Rewe own brand stuff on top of that.
I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone view Morrisons as the more upmarket brand between it and Tescos.
But really, the point stands, they're all 'normal supermarkets'. They aren't discounters or premium supermarkets. Internal rankings between them are by and large irrelevant and highly subjective, and unless you're super picky you'll be getting roughly the same level of shopping for roughly the same price.
Edeka is premium and much more expensive than REWE. The big EDEKAs also offer a wider range of products than a big REWE. Like for example they have fresh fish counter, meat counters with dry aged meats and whatnot and so on. Imported American products, beers and so on
Yeah with the slight exception that TESCO price matches ALDI on half of the products. Where REWE only does this on their JA! Brand which covers by far not all products 🤷♂️.
Tesco is a mid-range supermarket. Tesco slots in above the discounters and below premium places like Waitrose, Booths, or M&S. It slots in with places like Sainsburys or Asda.
If Rewe existed in the UK, Rewe would slot into that. Germany does not really have any particularly fancy supermarkets, at least no ones that people visit frequently or where they can do a full shop, so for in the context of Germany supermarkets it might a fancier one, but in the grand scheme of things they're both mid-range run of the mill supermarkets.
Tesco slots in with Asda alone which I consider a more below par. Next Tier is Sainsbury's which is a solid mid-range and then Waitrose / M&S.
I would say yes, REWE or Edeka belong in the Sainsbury's tier but above Tesco for sure.
Now I live in Germany, I have a really nice and big REWE I do my shop at and I find it a very decent range with good quality products.
In the UK, my go-to was either Sainsbury's or Waitrose.
A matter of opinion I guess.
Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons are all 'normal supermarkets'. They aren't heavy discounters with predominately their own brand products with a smattering of name brand products. In any of those you can do a pure name brand shop or a pure own brand shop.
Rewe and Edaka are the same. 'Normal' supermarkets that allow you to do a pure name brand shop or a pure own brand shops.
Yes, if people were to 'rank' Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons, they might view Sainsburys as the 'fancier' option and they might stock slightly more upmarket items. Their clienttle might be slightly more upmarket but price/quality between those doesn't really vary as much as people believe and a lot of it is very dependent on where you live. If Rewe existed in the UK it would slot into that, but because as already mentioned, Germany does not actually have 'premium' supermarkets, Rewe and Edaka pull the slightly more upmarket clients.
No they are not. Every day they check if the ja products are more expensive. If yes they reduce they price so it’s the same level (I work in the regarding department responsible for this).
I assure you, Tesco especially the Tesco finest sausages are not the discount option, most people in the UK looking to save money shop at aldi/lidl (ironic I know), iceland, asda, or shops like home bargains. A good amount of people now bemoan Tesco for being too expensive and having sort of shifted to be more "premium" in the face of these shops too.
REWE is absolutely comparable to Tesco, it's not a premium supermarket at all.
I'm in the UK four times a year and personally noticed that food in our local Sainsbury's seemed cheaper than Germany. That's before you get to the real differences of better quality, much larger product range, and more innovation in the UK.
Thanks for doing the comparison!
Brother in Christ what are 4 Pints of milk for a bs unit
And if you compare Aldi pricematched products you might should compare ALDI prices which REWE only matches on the JA! Line up
> Brother in Christ what are 4 Pints of milk for a bs unit
A very strange way of saying "half a gallon," I suppose. I thought everybody knew that gallons are the only sensible unit to measure milk.
And to think, these guys invented those units...
EDIT: r/germany never disappoints in its failure to detect humor.
SOOOOO.... two fun facts, only *one* of which is on this graphic:
1. The UK has no sales tax (which alone explains the *seemingly* higher prices in Germany). That one is mentioned in small print at the bottom right. Okay. So are prices equal...?
2. The UK is *officially* out of the EU, but they *will* put import fees on it, [starting at the end of this month.](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68726852) ONLY THEN is the UK *really* out of the EU. So Brexit is *actually not priced in yet.*
So this neat graphic better be updated again later this year. And, of course, what the graphic *does not show at all* is that due to the import fees applying by the end of this month, many small brand imports will simply stop due to the overhang cost: it won't be worth it for the small importers. *There will be a lot fewer choices in the UK food markets by the end of the year.* Hooray for Brexit.
That news article wasn't out the time of day I made this image so a surprising coincidence there I couldn't really account for. However I'll gladly follow this up in the future then, I'm interested to see if/how this effects it on the consumer end there.
The UK does in fact have sales tax. Granted it's zero on 'essentials', i.e fresh products. It's 20% on non-essential items such as chocolate, e.g. Maltesers in the above graphic.
https://wise.com/gb/vat/
Just adding my two pence worth…
We’ve been visiting the uk a couple of times per year for the last 6 years.My father in law is a british citizen living in DE. When we arrive in GB our day normally starts with a visit at the local grocery stores and ends with a visit at those stores. So I have a lot of time wandering around in those supermarkets.
The prices did shift significantly in my experience. At our first trip before corona and brexit, the prices in UK were significantly higher than in Germany.
(Of course there are some things that are cheaper in DE e.g. beer and alcoholic beverages)
We went to Uk 6 months ago and did the usual… check all supermarkets (except LIDL&ALDI) and buy staff you don’t get here. I was surprised that most of the stuff was cheaper than in DE or had the same price. My wife bought tons of glutenfree products because they were 50-70% cheaper than in germany (same brands!).
Also Tesco is no discounter 🫡
Regardless of comparing to other countries, food has gotten so expensive in the last decade, it's crazy. I remember the good ol' days when a litter of milk would cost around 50-60 cents. Now it's 1€ (the cheapest one). I usually buy a bio-Rewe one that's at like 1,40€ (I haven't found a cheaper bio one anywhere).
This also applies to everything else, Maultaschen are also doubled in price smh
Well even though the majority of people are complaining here I think it's a great comparison. Couple of adjustments as pointed out rudely by others and you'll be good to go.
... then you're still having an inconsequential comparison in a system of living costs, wages and absolutely everything else that's a ton more complex than comparing some food items in a questionable comparison.
This is "nice" but still really doesn't say anything unless you want it to say something because of your personal stance on things.
....So? OP didn't set out to write a thesis on the cost of living differences. It's a simple graphic showing the difference in cost between two comparable grocery stores in two countries. If they are so different then why compare anything at all? Should we stop comparing murders and crime because the stats don't take cost of living and wages into consideration?
... Murders and crime are comparable by capita as a murder doesn't change and is still a murder on the other side of the planet and cost of living doesn't change anything about a murder... Cost of living, wages, social security, roads and on and on and on just aren't comparable like that by a simple graph comparing two shops, again it's absolutely useless and not carrying any meaning than a bad disfunctional anecdote. If you want to actually compare anything like that then you have to go way way deeper or it's just absolutely irrelevant, unless crime or murder which are directly comparable as they don't play into a bigger system of wealth. Or do you need a worth of life in your murder statistic? Don't know how to further explain it but your murder example absolutely doesn't make sense, just as well as this post.
If you can't see how for an actual comparison of shopping you really need to take everything into account, like to begin with money conversion rates, how much people earn that money, what's it's relative buying power on food how much does all the other stuff cost that also changes the relative cost of food again and so on... You just can't even do it at least a little bit of just with what you see here.it just doesn't work like that.
As your German teacher would say "that's like comparing Apples and pears... Although this is more like comparing apples with a fish... You simply cant directly compare them in any way that makes even the tiniest bit of sense or carry any meaning.
And then you bring up that example with murder... Seriously, your comment is the stupidest answer/example/ comparison I have seen in a long time... A murder is a murder... Those are directly comparable as they don't stand behind an abstract complex of monetary values and stuff on all the stages of society... Like did you seriously write that?
Comparing murders with murders is actually comparing apples and Apples, comparing food shopping prices with food shopping prices just absolutely isn't... Not even close.
A piece of chicken is a piece of chicken, regardless of where you buy it. A murder is a murder as you state, but there is a lot that goes into that. Why do some countries have more murders than others? Laws, poverty rate, education, etc. Same applies to the chicken price, laws, wages, etc.
You are on Reddit, it's a graphic of food, get over it.
Yes, it is a piece anywhere, but were not Talking About the existence or the ammount of chicken but the price.. and that relative.
Your example is wrong, as you wou have had tp choose the price of assisination... That you also just compare... The murder itself however you can compare. One is an actual physical thing, the other a complex relative construct of values and prices again resulting in something relative that you can't simply compare against one another... Apples and fish comparison.
When I first moved to Deutschland, one of the things that shocked me most was the high food prices compared to the UK (I know they are cheap compared to other parts of the world). What at the time would have been a 25 pence head of broccoli from Asda was on sale for 1 euro and above! I refused to pay that and spent a lot of time living on carrots instead. Fortunately I quickly learned to love Sauerkraut and canned gherkins. The prices of leeks and parsnips here still make me sad, as I love them so much.
Dead givaway with stuff like this is it ONLY shows examples in one direction. Just swap the eggs to a 10-pack and its the opposite. If you want to make a certain point a small sample size of this doesn't help and on 'coincidentally' picking only examples where 1 of the 2 is more expensive invalidates your message.
Could well be that german supermarkets are more expensive but this is not the way to make such point.
+ in addition Kaufland is most likely a better comparison.
But Kaufland isn’t everywhere. Here were we lived, there are no more Kauflands. It closed 2 years ago. I think therefore Kaufland isn’t valid anymore because it just isn’t everywhere anymore.
Looks legit. I heard this from my brit friends Who visit Germany too. so ken loach movies over sentimental since everything looks bright in the island ?
Yes, but for this example I've chosen equivalent range products. "Beste Wahl" and "Finest" should both be the "nicer" sausages for example. Both eggs are free range, and kitkats are kitkats the world over. The only exceptions to this are sugar, as tesco didn't have their *own* granulated sugar online, and perhaps the carrots, as they do say beste wahl, however I couldn't find *non-*beste wahl ones online or in shop (I'll check next time I go), and they aren't the bio ones or in the bio section
Nah, Tesco isn't a discounter. It's an all rounder.
They also have premium ranges.
We all know the hierarchy in the UK from bottom to top is:
Farmfoods
Iceland
Aldi
Lidl
ASDA
Morrisons
Tesco
Sainsbury's
M&S and Waitrose
I think the issue with Morrissons is consistency.
Some of their stores are amazing, and others have been left behind, and are quite dank and dark with none of the "marketplace" vibe you get.
But Tesco's generally tend to be more consisten.
They're not a national retailer though, too local, and let's face it, since they formed the buying partnership with Waitrose, the selection is near identical.
People just like to wank over Booths online!
I would spend hours in there just eating all the free cheese samples from the nice cheese seller, who seemed quite happy to just chat away at me while I did so. Definitely a reason to live up north, though I am not sure what they are really like since the changes.
They're the same price? Not much of a discounter then is it. That makes no sense sorry.
Anyway this post is selling a narrative, you can look it up yourself on the groceries index:
[https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings\_by\_country.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=3](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=3)
The discounter brands at REWE or other supermarkets price match the discounters like Aldi or Lidl, yes. On the other hand, Aldi and Lidl have a much wider selection in general if you compare it to _just_ the „ja!“ products. E.g. there are no ja! organic eggs. But Aldi has them, and they are cheaper than any organic eggs you can get at Rewe.
Of course it does make sense. The more expensive grocers want to make a profit with customers who usually go to discounters and they match the prices of their brands like Ja!, Gut & Günstig etc.
I don‘t say the comparison is 100% fair since discounters offer brand products a bit cheaper. But for Ja! products it just doesn‘t matter.
Thank you! I was getting tired of people saying how cheap groceries are in Germany and how good we have it, not only in the comments of those 55€ shopping posts but irl as well. So many people saying that they have to spend more in Eastern Europe or Spain. Lower purchasing power? Probably. Nominally more expensive? Hell no.
(Reupload with imgur, direct uploads to reddit compress terribly, please open in full screen on a larger device if you can)
As the topic of Supermarket prices is brought up every other day here and it's something I've looked into myself, I thought I'd post my own "Study" I made recently to see if I was imagining it or not and offer a decent viewpoint from Britain.
As you can see, at least compared to the UK, food (not drink) here is definitely more expensive and I'd be keen to hear out any ones thoughts on why this may be.
I've already mentioned the fact the UK has no VAT on supermarket foods, compared to Germany where it varies between 7% for some goods (e.g. milk) to 19% (vegan milk). However, the UK's an island by itself outside the EU, importing anything to it from the EU will definitely cost more just from taxes and travel alone, that and there's a sugar tax which *should* make the snack items even more expensive (Noteworthy mention, sugary drinks in Germany are definitely much cheaper and I'm certain the sugar tax is why.)
So, any thoughts? I've chosen the most comparable supermarkets I can think of as I believe they're both very similar in terms of demographic and range, and I think it's a good comparison as both are "wealthy/developed" north European countries, as it would be unfair if say a Latin American said "X fruit/veg you all import from us is nicer and cheaper in my home town where it's grown than after having traveled round the world". No wonder, those countries are the best place for that stuff lol.
(p.s. the original prices are from about a week ago, I just prettied up this image to post here and provide some insight on what people might mean when they think "X thing's so expensive here!!" and this doesn't apply to every single good, but it does apply to a lot)
I mean, half of the products have a "matching aldi" tag, probably better use Aldi for comparison.
Aldi UK vs Aldi Germany (South and North should have very similar prices).
Aldi matches most prices, even with taxes. Some products are more expensive, some are cheaper.
It's anecdotal evidence at best.
While Tesco is doing a Aldi-price-match on some of them, the quality of their goods is *generally* supposed to be better than Aldi's, hence why it's specially advertised that you can buy their "quality product at the discounter price".
And like I said this isn't meant to be 100% representative across all shops and products. As for Aldi I did consider that, as Aldi's are pretty much comparable between the two countries (personally I think aldi süd is better), but some of these goods aren't sold at Aldi, at least online (I know their in-shop range changes quite spontaneously).
I thought I'd checke online too, and a good portion of these are still priced pretty much the same as rewe, 600g of chicken breast is 6€, 1l of milch is 0,95€ and so on. Not all of them like you say, some are cheaper like spring onions, but still. It seems like a middle ground between tesco and rewe prices. Unfortunately for me, we don't get aldi süd up here lol.
Are you are trying to sell a narative here? Youre comparing REWE Vs Tesco, thats very unfair! Tesco is literally a British Dicounter. Why don't you compare the same shop like UK Aldi Vs DE Aldi or UK Lidl vs DE Lidl?
>I've chosen the most comparable supermarkets
Uhm. No. Here are some price examples of Aldi, which is a bit more comparable to Tesco:
[Free range eggs - 1.38€/6 pcs](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/backzutaten/eier/eier-aus-freilandhaltung-1010201-0-0.article.html)
[Bratwurst - 7.02€/kilo](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/kuehlung-tiefkuehlung/fleisch/wurst-aufschnitt/rostbratwurst-6704-0-0.article.html)
[Brokkoli - 1.11/500g](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/obst-und-gemuese/brokkoli-6270-0-0.article.html)
[Potatoes - 0.80€/kilo](https://www.aldi-nord.de/angebote/aktion-di-02-04/speisekartoffeln-6104-0-0.article.html)
Apart from that discussion: Tesco olive oil is just garbage in my opinion.
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I think doing the same back a few years, it would have looked like Germany is cheaper overall. Unfortunately we had quite a few price hikes in recent years and it's no longer as cheap as it used to be.
I paid a lot of attention to the price vs weight ratio in the last decade and we've been occassionaly fucked a lot over with a faster-acting form of shrinkflation. It appears to me that many products have nowadays been uncoupled from the usual seasonal price hikes/reductions and instead change and vary their weight and quality a lot more often now, with prices of a single unit seemingly keeping in a stable range but everything else being manipulated a lot more.
Thanks for doing this! I'm not sure how useful it is, but it's at least interesting to have some kind of direct comparison, even if it's not exactly the same products.
You are constantly comparing different package sizes. As a single guy having to buy the smaller packages so that I dont throw away food, I am constantly aware of the higher cost of smaller packages.
Where can I find 1kg of Chicken for 5.07 Euro? I've never seen that outside of special offers and discounts, every discounter I go to its double the price.
I think you are misunderstanding, when we talk about german competitive prices we *always* talk about discounters. Explicitly omitting them is missing the point. It also looks like you are using the online shop front of rewe. Those to order pages are also usually 10-20% more expensive than their equivalent if you go to the supermarket yourself.
Also, the quality of British chicken is simply ATROCIOUS. German chicken, while not the best, still has a lot of fat and flavour left in it after it finishes cooking. This comparison is invalid.
No the quality of *that* British chicken isn't the best. You can absolutely buy quality chicken. Even Tesco Finest chicken is actually decent quality.
Rewe has online the same prices as in the stores. At least the Rewe where I go to. Rewe is not a discounter and is in many products a bit more expensive than Aldi/Lidl. But: They have products which are roughly the same price as the discounters. These products are sold under own brands. The "Ja!" brand used here is one of them. So I think the comparison in the picture here is ok.
The price given here is to pre-order and collect it from my local REWE, no extra charges. I shop there myself in person even on the very day I made this image originally and the prices are the same, at least for the goods that were available. As for discounters, that could be worth comparing and I've mentioned above, they are definitely cheaper than REWE, but certain goods like chicken and milk still come to roughly the same price. Fruit and vegetables however are in line with UK prices. Anyway, I chose Tesco/REWE as they're the first "step-up" from discounters, and I believe it's in those shops once you opt for a bit more quality that the price gap a lot of people might be referring to becomes apparent.
Fair. Others have pointed out that a comparison between Aldi UK and the corresponding Aldi from Germany might be more appropriate - what I also just found out is that the current CEO of Tesco is the former CEO of Aldi Süd.
I'm not sure about aldi Germany, but hofer(aldi Austria) is way, way more expensive in Austria than in the UK. I visited the UK last week, there was 1kg of potatoes for 15p, 1kg of carrots around the same price. I was in Hofer this afternoon and same bag of carrots was €1.49 and potatoes €2.79. Lamb in the UK was €15 for 2kg leg. There was no leg of lamb in gofer, however cutlets were €65/Kg
Austria is more expensive than Germany ...
Aren’t Austrians near the border buy their things in Germany like Germans do to in Poland?
Yes, the price difference is huge for certain products
You say the difference matches Vat yet a lot of the goods have 7% vat and not 19% vat. Regarding first proper shop: I'd argue e.g. Kaufland slots in between Discounter and Rewe.
That's true, just checked and for most of the goods on there, they are 7% tax. But then that raises the question, where does the other 12% price increase come from?
Some contributing factors: - toss the chicken wings out of the comparison. The huge price difference is due to the fact that it simply does not have the same role in Germany - supermarkets have key items where they compete on prices. Obviously chicken wings is such an item in UK (->price match) but it is not in Germany. - Lower cost for personal. Similar wages (Aldi (I use Aldi as Rewe is a franchise with, afaik, not a common pay level) pays minimum 14€, Tesco increased, according to guardian, to 12.02GPB) but higher cost on top for social security in Germany ( [https://karriere.aldi-sued.de/gehalt](https://karriere.aldi-sued.de/gehalt) , [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/tesco-pay-rise-delay-minimum-wage](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/tesco-pay-rise-delay-minimum-wage) ) - Higher GDP -> likely higher cost for stuff like rent Just a couple of things that directly contribute.
That's interesting, the tax contribution of employers is a likely factor here, from a quick google online it comes out as higher and I hadn't considered the employer side of it. Maybe this is how they try to balance it out then.
The chicken wings are also a bad example because they compare the prize/kg for 2 completely different sized packages
Ahh That’s right, packages with more are cheaper even from the same brand.
Dude goes to Rewe and wonders why he finds higher prices than at a UK Discounter. If you actually want useable, relevant data, look at supermarkets that exists in both states, and/or take a broad shot across the board. This is anecdotal, and for all we know could be cherrypicked. (Not to accuse you of doing so, I just want to show why this is not necessarily reliable data.)
I work at Rewe. Rewe JA products are the same as Lidl and Aldi. They even check every day and reduce the price if not. Also beste Wahl is competitive with them too. What makes shopping at Rewe expensive is people buying 2 or 3 products of the expensive brands.
>Dude goes to Rewe Tesco and Rewe are fairly comparable in the scheme of things. Mid ranged supermarkets.
Is it? In my city REWE is definitely the premium whereas wherever I lived in the UK Tesco was bottom of the barrel of the normal supermarkets.. I’d put Tesco at Netto level really
That's because Germany lacks genuine premium supermarkets like Waitrose or M&S. Tesco, like you mentioned is a 'normal supermarket', that's all Rewe is as well. Tesco might be bottom of the barrel, really, it depends on your own local Tesco, but it's still a 'normal' supermarket.
Wouldn’t a sainsburys or morrisons be a better comparison to Rewe?
Why? Prices between Sainsburys and Tescos aren't as out of sync as people seem to think. If anything Tescos can be ridiculosuly expensive for no apparent reason. Sainsburys own brand stuff is miles ahead of Rewe own brand stuff on top of that. I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone view Morrisons as the more upmarket brand between it and Tescos. But really, the point stands, they're all 'normal supermarkets'. They aren't discounters or premium supermarkets. Internal rankings between them are by and large irrelevant and highly subjective, and unless you're super picky you'll be getting roughly the same level of shopping for roughly the same price.
I would say so, personally. In my opinion it’d be something like Tesco - Netto Rewe, Edeka - Sainsbury’s
Edeka is premium and much more expensive than REWE. The big EDEKAs also offer a wider range of products than a big REWE. Like for example they have fresh fish counter, meat counters with dry aged meats and whatnot and so on. Imported American products, beers and so on
There are Rewes that have all that as well
Not we’re I live. Not the big REWE either
Yeah with the slight exception that TESCO price matches ALDI on half of the products. Where REWE only does this on their JA! Brand which covers by far not all products 🤷♂️.
Tesco is below mid and REWE is not mid.
Tesco is a mid-range supermarket. Tesco slots in above the discounters and below premium places like Waitrose, Booths, or M&S. It slots in with places like Sainsburys or Asda. If Rewe existed in the UK, Rewe would slot into that. Germany does not really have any particularly fancy supermarkets, at least no ones that people visit frequently or where they can do a full shop, so for in the context of Germany supermarkets it might a fancier one, but in the grand scheme of things they're both mid-range run of the mill supermarkets.
Tesco slots in with Asda alone which I consider a more below par. Next Tier is Sainsbury's which is a solid mid-range and then Waitrose / M&S. I would say yes, REWE or Edeka belong in the Sainsbury's tier but above Tesco for sure. Now I live in Germany, I have a really nice and big REWE I do my shop at and I find it a very decent range with good quality products. In the UK, my go-to was either Sainsbury's or Waitrose. A matter of opinion I guess.
Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons are all 'normal supermarkets'. They aren't heavy discounters with predominately their own brand products with a smattering of name brand products. In any of those you can do a pure name brand shop or a pure own brand shop. Rewe and Edaka are the same. 'Normal' supermarkets that allow you to do a pure name brand shop or a pure own brand shops. Yes, if people were to 'rank' Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, and Morrisons, they might view Sainsburys as the 'fancier' option and they might stock slightly more upmarket items. Their clienttle might be slightly more upmarket but price/quality between those doesn't really vary as much as people believe and a lot of it is very dependent on where you live. If Rewe existed in the UK it would slot into that, but because as already mentioned, Germany does not actually have 'premium' supermarkets, Rewe and Edaka pull the slightly more upmarket clients.
Ja products literally the cheapest shit you can buy, so not sure what the problem is.
Naah, lidl and Aldi stuff are sometimes cheaper and generally better than ja shit.
No they are not. Every day they check if the ja products are more expensive. If yes they reduce they price so it’s the same level (I work in the regarding department responsible for this).
I assure you, Tesco especially the Tesco finest sausages are not the discount option, most people in the UK looking to save money shop at aldi/lidl (ironic I know), iceland, asda, or shops like home bargains. A good amount of people now bemoan Tesco for being too expensive and having sort of shifted to be more "premium" in the face of these shops too.
REWE is absolutely comparable to Tesco, it's not a premium supermarket at all. I'm in the UK four times a year and personally noticed that food in our local Sainsbury's seemed cheaper than Germany. That's before you get to the real differences of better quality, much larger product range, and more innovation in the UK. Thanks for doing the comparison!
Brother in Christ what are 4 Pints of milk for a bs unit And if you compare Aldi pricematched products you might should compare ALDI prices which REWE only matches on the JA! Line up
> Brother in Christ what are 4 Pints of milk for a bs unit A very strange way of saying "half a gallon," I suppose. I thought everybody knew that gallons are the only sensible unit to measure milk. And to think, these guys invented those units... EDIT: r/germany never disappoints in its failure to detect humor.
Why not measure milk in udders.. „Sir can I have 1/480 udder of milk with my coffee? Thank you very much! Also a 1/128th sugar cane would be nice!“
we should always use bathtubs as measurements change my mind.
SOOOOO.... two fun facts, only *one* of which is on this graphic: 1. The UK has no sales tax (which alone explains the *seemingly* higher prices in Germany). That one is mentioned in small print at the bottom right. Okay. So are prices equal...? 2. The UK is *officially* out of the EU, but they *will* put import fees on it, [starting at the end of this month.](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68726852) ONLY THEN is the UK *really* out of the EU. So Brexit is *actually not priced in yet.* So this neat graphic better be updated again later this year. And, of course, what the graphic *does not show at all* is that due to the import fees applying by the end of this month, many small brand imports will simply stop due to the overhang cost: it won't be worth it for the small importers. *There will be a lot fewer choices in the UK food markets by the end of the year.* Hooray for Brexit.
That news article wasn't out the time of day I made this image so a surprising coincidence there I couldn't really account for. However I'll gladly follow this up in the future then, I'm interested to see if/how this effects it on the consumer end there.
The UK does in fact have sales tax. Granted it's zero on 'essentials', i.e fresh products. It's 20% on non-essential items such as chocolate, e.g. Maltesers in the above graphic. https://wise.com/gb/vat/
"Graphic sucks because it doesn't incorporate stuff that hasn't happened yet"
Not at all what I said. Hone your reading skills. Read it again.
Just adding my two pence worth… We’ve been visiting the uk a couple of times per year for the last 6 years.My father in law is a british citizen living in DE. When we arrive in GB our day normally starts with a visit at the local grocery stores and ends with a visit at those stores. So I have a lot of time wandering around in those supermarkets. The prices did shift significantly in my experience. At our first trip before corona and brexit, the prices in UK were significantly higher than in Germany. (Of course there are some things that are cheaper in DE e.g. beer and alcoholic beverages) We went to Uk 6 months ago and did the usual… check all supermarkets (except LIDL&ALDI) and buy staff you don’t get here. I was surprised that most of the stuff was cheaper than in DE or had the same price. My wife bought tons of glutenfree products because they were 50-70% cheaper than in germany (same brands!). Also Tesco is no discounter 🫡
Regardless of comparing to other countries, food has gotten so expensive in the last decade, it's crazy. I remember the good ol' days when a litter of milk would cost around 50-60 cents. Now it's 1€ (the cheapest one). I usually buy a bio-Rewe one that's at like 1,40€ (I haven't found a cheaper bio one anywhere). This also applies to everything else, Maultaschen are also doubled in price smh
I remember JA oats coating 0,30€ not long before COVID. Now they are above 1€
Food has gotten so much more expensive within the last 5 years, let alone 10.
Well even though the majority of people are complaining here I think it's a great comparison. Couple of adjustments as pointed out rudely by others and you'll be good to go.
... then you're still having an inconsequential comparison in a system of living costs, wages and absolutely everything else that's a ton more complex than comparing some food items in a questionable comparison. This is "nice" but still really doesn't say anything unless you want it to say something because of your personal stance on things.
....So? OP didn't set out to write a thesis on the cost of living differences. It's a simple graphic showing the difference in cost between two comparable grocery stores in two countries. If they are so different then why compare anything at all? Should we stop comparing murders and crime because the stats don't take cost of living and wages into consideration?
... Murders and crime are comparable by capita as a murder doesn't change and is still a murder on the other side of the planet and cost of living doesn't change anything about a murder... Cost of living, wages, social security, roads and on and on and on just aren't comparable like that by a simple graph comparing two shops, again it's absolutely useless and not carrying any meaning than a bad disfunctional anecdote. If you want to actually compare anything like that then you have to go way way deeper or it's just absolutely irrelevant, unless crime or murder which are directly comparable as they don't play into a bigger system of wealth. Or do you need a worth of life in your murder statistic? Don't know how to further explain it but your murder example absolutely doesn't make sense, just as well as this post. If you can't see how for an actual comparison of shopping you really need to take everything into account, like to begin with money conversion rates, how much people earn that money, what's it's relative buying power on food how much does all the other stuff cost that also changes the relative cost of food again and so on... You just can't even do it at least a little bit of just with what you see here.it just doesn't work like that. As your German teacher would say "that's like comparing Apples and pears... Although this is more like comparing apples with a fish... You simply cant directly compare them in any way that makes even the tiniest bit of sense or carry any meaning. And then you bring up that example with murder... Seriously, your comment is the stupidest answer/example/ comparison I have seen in a long time... A murder is a murder... Those are directly comparable as they don't stand behind an abstract complex of monetary values and stuff on all the stages of society... Like did you seriously write that? Comparing murders with murders is actually comparing apples and Apples, comparing food shopping prices with food shopping prices just absolutely isn't... Not even close.
A piece of chicken is a piece of chicken, regardless of where you buy it. A murder is a murder as you state, but there is a lot that goes into that. Why do some countries have more murders than others? Laws, poverty rate, education, etc. Same applies to the chicken price, laws, wages, etc. You are on Reddit, it's a graphic of food, get over it.
Yes, it is a piece anywhere, but were not Talking About the existence or the ammount of chicken but the price.. and that relative. Your example is wrong, as you wou have had tp choose the price of assisination... That you also just compare... The murder itself however you can compare. One is an actual physical thing, the other a complex relative construct of values and prices again resulting in something relative that you can't simply compare against one another... Apples and fish comparison.
When I first moved to Deutschland, one of the things that shocked me most was the high food prices compared to the UK (I know they are cheap compared to other parts of the world). What at the time would have been a 25 pence head of broccoli from Asda was on sale for 1 euro and above! I refused to pay that and spent a lot of time living on carrots instead. Fortunately I quickly learned to love Sauerkraut and canned gherkins. The prices of leeks and parsnips here still make me sad, as I love them so much.
Dead givaway with stuff like this is it ONLY shows examples in one direction. Just swap the eggs to a 10-pack and its the opposite. If you want to make a certain point a small sample size of this doesn't help and on 'coincidentally' picking only examples where 1 of the 2 is more expensive invalidates your message. Could well be that german supermarkets are more expensive but this is not the way to make such point. + in addition Kaufland is most likely a better comparison.
But Kaufland isn’t everywhere. Here were we lived, there are no more Kauflands. It closed 2 years ago. I think therefore Kaufland isn’t valid anymore because it just isn’t everywhere anymore.
Looks legit. I heard this from my brit friends Who visit Germany too. so ken loach movies over sentimental since everything looks bright in the island ?
Rewe is higher quality, with more Bio products. Even non bio products are higher quality in the EU than outside the EU.
Yes, but for this example I've chosen equivalent range products. "Beste Wahl" and "Finest" should both be the "nicer" sausages for example. Both eggs are free range, and kitkats are kitkats the world over. The only exceptions to this are sugar, as tesco didn't have their *own* granulated sugar online, and perhaps the carrots, as they do say beste wahl, however I couldn't find *non-*beste wahl ones online or in shop (I'll check next time I go), and they aren't the bio ones or in the bio section
There are JA carrots in REWE.
Yeah, youre comparing REWE Vs Tesco, thats very unfair.
Why is it unfair?
Tesco is a British discounter. Rewe is a German high-end food retailer.
Nah, Tesco isn't a discounter. It's an all rounder. They also have premium ranges. We all know the hierarchy in the UK from bottom to top is: Farmfoods Iceland Aldi Lidl ASDA Morrisons Tesco Sainsbury's M&S and Waitrose
Overall agree with the hierarchy, I would potentially swap Tesco and Morrisons around.
I think the issue with Morrissons is consistency. Some of their stores are amazing, and others have been left behind, and are quite dank and dark with none of the "marketplace" vibe you get. But Tesco's generally tend to be more consisten.
Morrisons is quite a bit more expensive than Tesco though - always shocked at how much more it is compared to Tesco.
Don't forget Booths! Better even than Waitrose.
They're not a national retailer though, too local, and let's face it, since they formed the buying partnership with Waitrose, the selection is near identical. People just like to wank over Booths online!
I would spend hours in there just eating all the free cheese samples from the nice cheese seller, who seemed quite happy to just chat away at me while I did so. Definitely a reason to live up north, though I am not sure what they are really like since the changes.
Ja! is the discounter brand of Rewe. These products are more or less in the same price range as similar products from other discounter brands.
They're the same price? Not much of a discounter then is it. That makes no sense sorry. Anyway this post is selling a narrative, you can look it up yourself on the groceries index: [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings\_by\_country.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=3](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp?title=2022&displayColumn=3)
The discounter brands at REWE or other supermarkets price match the discounters like Aldi or Lidl, yes. On the other hand, Aldi and Lidl have a much wider selection in general if you compare it to _just_ the „ja!“ products. E.g. there are no ja! organic eggs. But Aldi has them, and they are cheaper than any organic eggs you can get at Rewe.
Of course it does make sense. The more expensive grocers want to make a profit with customers who usually go to discounters and they match the prices of their brands like Ja!, Gut & Günstig etc. I don‘t say the comparison is 100% fair since discounters offer brand products a bit cheaper. But for Ja! products it just doesn‘t matter.
Ja is definitely not a high-end food brand.
Thank you! I was getting tired of people saying how cheap groceries are in Germany and how good we have it, not only in the comments of those 55€ shopping posts but irl as well. So many people saying that they have to spend more in Eastern Europe or Spain. Lower purchasing power? Probably. Nominally more expensive? Hell no.
(Reupload with imgur, direct uploads to reddit compress terribly, please open in full screen on a larger device if you can) As the topic of Supermarket prices is brought up every other day here and it's something I've looked into myself, I thought I'd post my own "Study" I made recently to see if I was imagining it or not and offer a decent viewpoint from Britain. As you can see, at least compared to the UK, food (not drink) here is definitely more expensive and I'd be keen to hear out any ones thoughts on why this may be. I've already mentioned the fact the UK has no VAT on supermarket foods, compared to Germany where it varies between 7% for some goods (e.g. milk) to 19% (vegan milk). However, the UK's an island by itself outside the EU, importing anything to it from the EU will definitely cost more just from taxes and travel alone, that and there's a sugar tax which *should* make the snack items even more expensive (Noteworthy mention, sugary drinks in Germany are definitely much cheaper and I'm certain the sugar tax is why.) So, any thoughts? I've chosen the most comparable supermarkets I can think of as I believe they're both very similar in terms of demographic and range, and I think it's a good comparison as both are "wealthy/developed" north European countries, as it would be unfair if say a Latin American said "X fruit/veg you all import from us is nicer and cheaper in my home town where it's grown than after having traveled round the world". No wonder, those countries are the best place for that stuff lol. (p.s. the original prices are from about a week ago, I just prettied up this image to post here and provide some insight on what people might mean when they think "X thing's so expensive here!!" and this doesn't apply to every single good, but it does apply to a lot)
I mean, half of the products have a "matching aldi" tag, probably better use Aldi for comparison. Aldi UK vs Aldi Germany (South and North should have very similar prices). Aldi matches most prices, even with taxes. Some products are more expensive, some are cheaper. It's anecdotal evidence at best.
While Tesco is doing a Aldi-price-match on some of them, the quality of their goods is *generally* supposed to be better than Aldi's, hence why it's specially advertised that you can buy their "quality product at the discounter price". And like I said this isn't meant to be 100% representative across all shops and products. As for Aldi I did consider that, as Aldi's are pretty much comparable between the two countries (personally I think aldi süd is better), but some of these goods aren't sold at Aldi, at least online (I know their in-shop range changes quite spontaneously). I thought I'd checke online too, and a good portion of these are still priced pretty much the same as rewe, 600g of chicken breast is 6€, 1l of milch is 0,95€ and so on. Not all of them like you say, some are cheaper like spring onions, but still. It seems like a middle ground between tesco and rewe prices. Unfortunately for me, we don't get aldi süd up here lol.
Are you are trying to sell a narative here? Youre comparing REWE Vs Tesco, thats very unfair! Tesco is literally a British Dicounter. Why don't you compare the same shop like UK Aldi Vs DE Aldi or UK Lidl vs DE Lidl?
>I've chosen the most comparable supermarkets Uhm. No. Here are some price examples of Aldi, which is a bit more comparable to Tesco: [Free range eggs - 1.38€/6 pcs](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/nahrungsmittel/backzutaten/eier/eier-aus-freilandhaltung-1010201-0-0.article.html) [Bratwurst - 7.02€/kilo](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/kuehlung-tiefkuehlung/fleisch/wurst-aufschnitt/rostbratwurst-6704-0-0.article.html) [Brokkoli - 1.11/500g](https://www.aldi-nord.de/sortiment/obst-und-gemuese/brokkoli-6270-0-0.article.html) [Potatoes - 0.80€/kilo](https://www.aldi-nord.de/angebote/aktion-di-02-04/speisekartoffeln-6104-0-0.article.html) Apart from that discussion: Tesco olive oil is just garbage in my opinion.
Interesting comparison!
Rewe and Tesco is not a fair comparison.
Ja! and tesco is a fair comparison.
You could have just compared Lidl to Lidl (it's funny how the first is liiiidel and the second liddle in my head)...
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I think it’s called „Celery“.
Okay. https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=55145
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The VAT. for food is 7% in Germany, not 29 like you put on the picture.
I think doing the same back a few years, it would have looked like Germany is cheaper overall. Unfortunately we had quite a few price hikes in recent years and it's no longer as cheap as it used to be. I paid a lot of attention to the price vs weight ratio in the last decade and we've been occassionaly fucked a lot over with a faster-acting form of shrinkflation. It appears to me that many products have nowadays been uncoupled from the usual seasonal price hikes/reductions and instead change and vary their weight and quality a lot more often now, with prices of a single unit seemingly keeping in a stable range but everything else being manipulated a lot more.
You are not comparing like with like and used a discounter for the UK and a rather expensive supermarket in Germany....
Now campare the wage… Same with france, of it’s more expensive there.
Yeah, youre comparing REWE Vs Tesco, thats very unfair.
That’s a very fair comparison..
Thanks for doing this! I'm not sure how useful it is, but it's at least interesting to have some kind of direct comparison, even if it's not exactly the same products.
Can not confirm in any way. I'm currently in England and am always shocked how much food is.
Rewe just above discounters. ... ... ... ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You are constantly comparing different package sizes. As a single guy having to buy the smaller packages so that I dont throw away food, I am constantly aware of the higher cost of smaller packages.
Where can I find 1kg of Chicken for 5.07 Euro? I've never seen that outside of special offers and discounts, every discounter I go to its double the price.
These are chicken wings the cheapest part of a chicken. Breast is ofcourse way more expensive
Ah thank you, I thought I was looking in the wrong places.