GERMAN vs. UK Prices. Are German Groceries actually cheaper? 

Interesting. Germany does have more organic stuff…especially when comparing Aldi. I’m not sure about the quality of vegetables. I haven’t noticed a huge difference…other than they still wrap things in plastic in the U.K. like cucumbers.

​@@britingermany This may be part of it, there are definitely more organic foods in Germany and don't get me started on the plastic wrap obsession here! Comparing say Rewe and Tesco rather than say Aldi vs Aldi is where you really see the difference. Aldi is cheaper everywhere. To get the same quality of say tomatoes you have to get the "extra special" range whereas in Rewe the standard tomatoes are brilliant. I suspect it comes down to Germans having higher standards when it comes to food quality (culturally) whereas the UK for a long time has not really cared as much. I also think Brexit has made a huge difference with fewer homegrown foods due to the lack of EU workers, and the imported food takes longer at the borders due to checks. New to the content but I love it all so far especially as a Scot moving to Germany, keep it up :D

@@davidsellars3924 thanks a lot. And best of luck with the move 😀🙏

@@davidsellars3924 I think a lower quality, esp. of vegetables would fall back on the entire shop. It would ruin the image, the reputation. It should never end with "this shop is selling rubbish". When Aldi started this used to be a little different. Cheap tiles, no shelfs, selling from the carton placed on the floor, and customer saying "I accept this, for the sake of a low price". This has dramaticly changed since kind of everybody is a discounter, REWE is not more expensive than Aldi, it just has more, and more expensive options, additionally. So the setup of "nice shops", with shelfs, and wood, and clean floor and lightning and smell has kind of influenced Aldi and Lidl to raise their standards. And all this beauty and cleanliness of the shop, has to correspond to the vegetables of course. Bad items are sorted out hourly. You need to attract people with those things also, cause this is cheaper in the long run, than lowering the price of cucumber.

It could be that the situation is already different in the summer but I was surprised at how similar the prices are, at least when comparing Aldi. It’s fun to compare Aldi products because you can make a direct comparison.

I live in Bavaria, a food shop is much more expensive than the North of England. 1kg Lamb 10GBP vs 30EUR, Avocado 80p vs 2.50EUR, meat is generally at least double the price

Good point. I remember when I got around 2 Euros for every pound, now it’s almost 1:1. I think other things like rent and housing are more expensive but food in general…even restaurants and cafes is pretty much the same as the major cities

Well, i'm old enough to remember the relatively stable Breton-Wood system. For a long time it was good enough for any practical purposes to calculate 1GBP = 14Deutschmark (~7€) and 1USD = 4,20Deutschmark (~2,1€). Compared to today (1GBP = 1,15€) the UK currency has lost 84% of the purchasing power! That is reflected in everything - wages, rents, GDP, prices... Absolutely nothing in the way of a further decline, the path for a currency equality is wide open.. As there is nothing to back up the UK currency except some dodgy monopoly money deals, there is only one way...

It's not so much related to the currency, but that the British drastically improved in quality and service (in general products). It isn't directly related to immigration, but more to reforms made under Thatcher, which took some time to fully work out. Germany already did such reforms in the 1930's. That's why the quality for every Euro or Pound spent improved. Also, British also bought more things abroad, if there is a benefit, what could also lead to cheaper production of goods to be sold.

The UK is an Island...they have to import food in very high margins from mainland Europe ever since..therefore food has an higher price in the UK than at mainland Europe in general ever since...despite the current inflation rate and despite Brexit...although Brexit does have an impact in behalf of higher food prices as well but that´s now on top of that (UK farmers now don´t produce food that much nowadays than before Brexit because of the lack of harvesting workforce but also in the meat producing industry as well which increases the number of food imports as well)

@@michaelgrabner8977 What has being an island got to do with food imports? New Zealand is an island as well and a big food net exporter...

Hello Neville. Are you going back and forth between the two countries a lot? I was mainly comparing Aldi as that’s really the only fair comparison one can make given the supermarket exists in both countries. I find Tesco has become pretty expensive. Petrol is a tricky one as its kind of like the stock market - going up and down all the time but the last time I checked it was around 1.80€ per litre in Hessen which is a similar price to the south of England (£1.50).

@@britingermany I moved from Somerset to the Frankfurt area in 1989, typically get back about once a year to visit the family. I’ve only shopped in Aldi once, and that was when I heard they were selling scones this year. If you’d like to hear how things have changed for a Brit in Germany over the past 30 years, I’d be happy to share.

@@nevillewhite2458 wow you must have seen a lot of changes in that time. In both countries. I’m sure you have a lot of interesting stories to share 😀

Haha the those particular chains flagged on RU-vid?

Grafschafter ist so lecker!

@@sisuguillam5109 Stimmt, aber Golden Syrup hat einen ganz anderen Geschmack.

@@missymoppel Stimmt.

Thank you👍🏻

Hello Australia 😀. Oh I hadn’t noticed Yorkshire Tea or Bacon. I’ll have to look out for that

@@britingermany Patriotic branding in Australia puts the rest of the world to shame - but that's only in supermarkets. There is no car industry there, for example. Yorkshire or PG Tips are available from some Indian-run small shops in FfM, and bacon from Karstadt (I could be wrong).

I think it’s gone through a few evolutions since then. Right now it seems to be around the same. Prices really have gone up a lot in both countries

Yes I actually haven’t been in an M&S at all this time. I see them more as a department store than a supermarket which is why I didn’t include them. I find the big food halls are not so common and just in the larger cities but if I remember correctly there are quite a few in inner city London whereas, as you say thing a like Tesco and Morrisons have moved out to the suburbs.

Apples are only imported from New Zealand when there are no significant British supplies. This is no accident. Apples are a seasonal fruit, and they only keep in cold storage for so long. As the seasons in New Zealand are pretty well the reverse of those in the UK, then apples are imported from that country (and others in the southern hemisphere) to fill the gaps when there are no British supplies. This is actually reflected in tariffs on imports where, unless there are special treaties, they are much higher during the period when British supplies are high than when they are low. Of course it does take energy to ship apples from the other side of the world, but of all methods of moving bulk products, shipping is by far the most energy efficient per ton-mile. That even includes things like rail.

Yes and as I found out also quite consistent across countries...

Thanks for sharing Pamela. I’d be interested to hear Where are you in the U.K.?

the egg thing is also because of other effects like bird influenca and ... problems in Netherlands

18 years in London? Wow that’s an achievement😉. Most people I know only manage a couple of years before it gets too intense. And yes I remember when I lived in the U.K. a long time ago it was quite hard to get British apples…most were from NZ or even South Africa I think. I think in this sense it’s good to focus more on local/regional stuff

@@britingermany Yes. I did not realise how anglicized I had become in those 18 years until I moved back to Germany. I really struggled at the beginning. Therefore it is very interesting to me to hear how you and other Brits get on in Germany. And how you feel when you visit the UK.

@@juliambada I can imagine. After a while things become second nature and you don’t realise that you’ve adapted.

Agreed. Thanks for your comment 😀

Hello Matthias. Thank you for watching and thanks for your comment. The south of England is (in general) the richest part of the U.K. so there are generally more opportunities here and also more money flows here. Yes it’s crazy how prices have gone up everywhere. Imagine if wages had gone up that much 🤣

When I first came here I thought groceries were incredibly cheap. I'm not sure of it was more of a perception though. Nothing feels cheap anymore. I wonder how I'd feel walking through an M&S now. What blows my mind these days is the cost of bread, in Germany, like wow, when did THAT happen.

@@ebbyc1817 I love artisan sourdough. There are two places on Frankfurt were I get it (occasionally) 7€ for 700g!!

@Matthias - the variety of milk you get in England is much better too. When we lived in Frankfurt, I'd buy our milk from the Kleinmarkthalle, because you could get the good stuff. If I even considered using UHT for my girlfriend's coffee, I'd be six feet under. That stuff is for emergencies only.

@@ebbyc1817 Ah yes, Bread/Rolls prices... they mostly went sky high fairly recently, with the increase in Energy Costs. While I see a plain roll at the bakery cost about 50 cents now in places like Hamburg, bakeries in Aldi and Kaufland elwhere still have them at around 17 cents/pcs

Interesting. I wonder if that is a recent development? I wouldn’t have expected it to be the case

You are right, they should have called it Viermaliger Weltmeister, and if that Wembly goal didn't happen, it would have been Fünfmaliger. :P

Wow that must be so interesting for you to notice all those differences now while things are still fresh. I wonder how long it will take before you readjust and stop noticing the differences…

Organic food is not healthier. It's a complete myth.

So that’s all of those branded products or is it just a selection?

@@britingermany All I've found where both carry a category. Aldi's selection is a bit smaller.

Yes I think Aldi does have a great marketing team…they seem to know what they’re doing!

Fair enough👍🏻

Wow! Yeah that must have been a long time ago🤣

@@britingermany Adrian Mole first appeared over 40 years ago. He was thirteen and three quarter years old in 1981, which makes him approaching 57 years old. The 15p in 1981 would be about 56p now according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator. A single 51gm Mars bar in Tesco is 80p, although it has to be remembered that there was no VAT on such things in 1981. Thus that 56p would now be 67p. Of course, that's assuming the size has remained the same. A (possibly dubiously accurate) Internet search indicates that the average Mars bar in the 1980s was 49gm (compared to that 51gm Tesco one), although it did increase to 65gm in the 1990s. In any event, it appears Mars bars have increased in price at a higher rate than the CPI in the intervening years.

No not really…I don’t drink much alcohol in general

Haha yes let’s start a new trend Lauren 🤣👍🏻

@@britingermany my parents once visited Bayreuth and kept saying Beirut… 🤣

​@@britingermany like the following it should be easy to say easily REWE: at ...we think at west and say the we just short (like in west), and the Re say longer: Reeewe(st)

​@@LaureninGermany The difference is minor😂

OmG! I was also very confused when I first heard that

I think it has intensified since Brexit but it was always more extreme in this way than Germany. Even though it is quite a materielaistic society there has now been for a long time a real focus on regional/local/sustainable etc…maybe even more of a focus than in Germany

@@britingermany That is an interesting change. Good to know! (haven't been to Britain in ages)

I'm British and can't really compare to Germany (or anywhere else), but I can give you the long-term British perspective. Which is that there may be some slight extra attempt to sell a kind of "national solidarity" with the British/Union Jack labelling in the last few years post-Brexit, but I think this is very marginal. To me, emphasising the British origin of products has always been much more of an attempt to suggest quality than anything nationalistic (And this type of labelling far pre-dated Brexit. It was the same when I was a kid back in the 80s). I think the British origin label has traditionally been used by supermarkets to give customers an assurance that: 1. it's high quality food to eat (since this is the perception of British customers) 2. it's been produced in a high quality regime (good animal welfare standards, regulations on food processing and farming chemicals, environmental policies and such) Food from abroad didn't mean these things would automatically be worse, but you just couldn't be sure about every other country. For some customers this would even be a particularly important and deliberate point of principle, for something like animal welfare. So the "British" logo is used as a reassurance of a known quality standard (at least in the customer's mind). If there's an attempt to give money to national farmers instead of foreign ones, I think this might be a factor for some British customers, but my sense is that it's nowhere near as important as the point about quality. (Also "air miles" might be a thing for some people, avoiding long transport chains for environmental reasons, but this is a much more recent worry.)

"After all, Britain has cut the lines to stuff coming from Europe" No it hasn't, and that is complete nonsense. You only have to look at where the food actually comes from in UK supermarkets to see that.

Wow that is a perspective I haven't heard before. I think most people would say the quality of food is better in Germany. I would agree with veggie/vegan products, I think this is culturally more developed in the UK than Germany

@@britingermany Well I'm going back to the UK again next week, so I'll do another comparison! I also like to bring back all my favourite canned foods from the UK, as Germany has almost no variety in their canned veggie food. Admittedly German (non-bio) vegetables are still decent, but my experience of regular fruit in Germany is much worse. Z.B. I've never seen shrivelled up passion fruits being sold in the UK, but here in Germany, it's the norm!

It’s not a chip on my shoulder it’s just an observation. And it was a “culture shock” as you don’t see that in Germany or if there is a flag it is tiny…it could have been ramped up for the coronation but I think especially in Aldi it is a normal everyday thing

And I have mentioned Pfand machines so often…obviously you a new but it gets boring for regular viewers after a while

I haven’t looked into that. Partly because it’s so variable in Germany. I know people that change their electricity provider…a lot…so as to save money. I’m not one of them. I’ve had the same contract for over 7 years. I think the “heat or eat” headline is very catchy. It’s really talking about the poorest of the poor which you also have in Germany. Many old age pensioners also didn’t heat last winter so save on living costs. It is definitely tough as prices have really sky rocketed…but they have also in Germany. I suspect there is more than a little schadenfreude from the remainers

@@britingermany Ah, I guess comparison is really difficult!

No it actually doesn’t cost more than food form elsewhere, it’s just encouragement to choose British over foreign food

We always had buy British and the various British flags on our foods, long before Brexit. Like in Germany there is made in Bayern or Künstengold promoting regional products.

In France its similar.

Ok yes I assumed it had fairly recent negative connotations

Same reason why Germans feel uneasy saying positive things about Germany, if we do, we make ourselves open to criticism from the right of the spectrum @@britingermany

Wo ist das?

Es war am Anfang des Ukraine-Kriegs, in Stuttgart

@@christinamotzer174 ahhh ok. Wow!

Yes I’m sure things will continue to change. I don’t think we’ve felt the full effects of the lockdowns yet let alone the repercussions of sanctioning Russia…maybe starting a vegetable garden on the balcony would be a good idea…

@@britingermany I'm not an economist and not very much into politics, but I'm convinced that a society that relies on everlasting growth can't survive in the long run. So I find the British signs in Aldi "Made in Britain" a good thing. I also have a look at the signs when I buy fruit and vegetables, and, yeah, "produce of Spain", alright, it's the EU, so why not. But onions from New Zealand, what the ...? Is there an onion island I don't about? And, yes, sanctioning Russia was a big mistake, especially with respect to German history. We had one chance in history to be a mediator for a peace treaty, and we blew it.

@@eisikater1584 I do remember (when I Stil lived in England) that the apples would often come from new Zealand and the apple juice from South Africa. I never understood the logic behind this so I do also see at least this development as a positive one

I must admit I had to look up who ren was. There was quite a bit of live music and people jamming on the beach

@@britingermany hope, you like his art.... even, if the first song might not do for you, give it a second try with something else, he is completly out of the box, his music goes deep and sometimes needs some time to think about. if you like it easier, try his band "the big push", they paused busking when ren went to canada for health reasons. i hope, they will reunited. 🙂

Sorry to hear that you were disappointed…I chose milk, cheese and carrots as I thought these are things most people buy. Of course I could have included eggs, flour butter and meat but I like to keep the videos short and succinct. I generally talk about cultural and social differences which is what really interests me.

Thanks a lot for checking in😀. I can’t really do anything about that RU-vid does what it wants 🤣. Only about 8% of people who watch my videos are subscribed…and most of my subscribers don’t watch my videos 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

@@britingermany :) well that seems to be normal for most youtube content creators but somehow youtube is somtimes bitchy about kicking people from subscriptions without letting them know, usually that happened before with channels like redacted and similar thats why i wondered that it happened with your channel... on one suggestion , if you want to gain more followers you might should start making shorts, content shorter than 3 minutes as they are consumed fastly by a large number of people and that way you can harvest subscriptions lot faster keep up the good work and have a lovely spring time

@@bendjohans3863 thanks a lot😀. Yeah I tried out shorts but I really do not enjoy making them and I don’t watch them myself not really my format…but I know some people are killing it with them

@@britingermany oh you dont really need to *make * them just take some fun short part out of one of your existing videos.. you come up with a catching title and than hand out the answer or solution to the title in the short film, a few content creators i meet so far make most of their earnings that way as with a catching title you can get many many views fastly and usually that creates likes too

@@bendjohans3863 haha if only it were that easy.😀

I wouldn’t say it is much cheaper. But it’s not accurate to say that Supermarket prices are cheaper in Germany than in the U.K. anymore.

Milk is a bad example as a simple commodity given that in France UHT milk is about 95% of the market, whilst that isn't the case in the UK where it has to be distributed refrigerated - a practice which some want to ban in the interests of reducing CO2 emissions.

@@TheEulerID It's the most homogenous product I could imagine. Maybe we switch to butter instead ? If more people only buy the cheapest of the cheap, producers less likely raise the price. Price sensibility is higher, while in France it's more quality sensibility. They are willing to pay 10% more, for a 10% better product. While a German is unable to notice a 10% better product, they are less sensible.

@@holger_p I don't know about Germany, but in the UK at least, there are a range of supermarkets with widely different prices. Waitrose, for instance, is a very different place to Aldi. Even the mid-range will usually have two or three different quality offerings aimed at different market sectors. As far as Aldi and Lidl are concerned, then much of their cost saving model is based on carrying a much more limited number of stock lines and minimising overheads, avoiding national brands and so on rather than necessarily compromising quality. Of course that is not true in all areas. Both carry far more bakery lines of better quality in Germany than they do in the USA or the UK (although Lidl do try harder in that respect in the UK than Aldi). In any event, there is an important factor in that not everybody can afford premium foods.

@@TheEulerID I was more talking about the reverse. Millionaires shop at Aldi, and something like "premium food" does not exists in shops. For something like a lobster you go to a fancy restaurant. And even normal supermarkets offer things in the price range of Aldi, not to loose customers to them. Something like bakeries, also butchers is still a subject to craft shops. Real bakeries, like 100 years ago. Saving money is so much in genes of germans, it generates lowest food prices in europe. Actually it's the reason why Lidl and Aldi had this inspiration to fight for each cent on each product.' And their first strategy was, to produce everything themselves, and sell it non-branded. And the sold from the forklifter, without putting products in a shelf, for a long time. Germans are just smart enough to understand, any service will result in higher prices, that's why there is no demand for service. They don't want to pay for it.

This is such a difficult question to answer. For one thing the Pandemic was really severe here. The lockdowns lasted 3-4 months longer than in Germany and that was brutal. The war and inflation are still playing a large role. On top of that the Media is dominated by the left who were pretty much all remainers. That’s why there are a lot of “I told you so stories” going around. I think Brexit is a great scapegoat but it’s way more complicated than that…for example the narrative that the NHS is on the Brink of collapse has been going on ever since I can remember (so at least 30 years). I think with everything there are winners and loosers but the fact that prices are rising can’t be pinned to Brexit. There are too many other factors involved. Time will tell

Probably.I agree 100%. Sometimes i m just missing that there aren t more european news. Or tv stations like ARTE for other countries.

@@amanda7549 yeah that’s true. It’s a bit Insular news wise

​@@britingermany I'm a bit surprised by your statement that the media were mainly left leaning. The Times, Sun, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express ... I thought that they were all leaning to the conservatives. But I need to admit that I have no idea about their circulation in comparison to Guardian, Independent and Observer. And I don't know how influential those national newspapers are compared to regional or local ones. The latter ones in Germany tend to be more conservative in general (Frankfurter Rundschau is quite exceptional in that regard). BTW, wouldn't that be an interesting topic for a video: a comparison of media in the UK and in Germany ?

@@michaelburggraf2822 Indeed it could be😉. I also meant the distribution of news on sites such as facebook, Instagram and RU-vid which are all pretty left leaning.

But did you know that Aldi and Lidl are German? I am pronouncing it as it should be said in German.

I wonder where you are living? They are definitely not double stacking in the south of England, where I currently am, or the midlands where my parents live.Obviously it depends a little bit on the time of day you go there. If you go in the morning then the shelves are full. If you go just before closing not so much...and no I went to the Tesco megastore in Brighton which was huge...they had the Aldi Price guarantee labels all over the place but actually only a handful of products met that requirement otherwise they are significantly more expensive than Aldi.And regarding the last point you don't think where your food comes from is an ethical question?

🤣I think it is still there...or did you rewrite it?

We all said Union Jack for years and I doubt I will say flag, even if I‘m on dry land. Union Flag sounds very strange to me, political correctness style.

I am an English born Brit actually and I don’t know where you got the idea that the Union Flag is correct?! They are used interchangeably. I think two years ago Germany was cheaper however it seems to have now caught up…at least with groceries

@@britingermany Sorry but I seem to remember that you mentioned in one of your videos that you were born in Switzerland. And to the Union Jack, that is the name for the flag flown on ships of the Royal Navy but this is an easy mistake to make like folks call the tower at the houses of Parliament "Big Ben" when it fact the tower is called the Elizabeth Tower and the bell at the top is Big Ben

@@hanshartfiel6394 I am half Swiss but I wasn’t born there😉. Not that it really matters but seeing as you brought up there is no official answer the point regarding the Union Jack…there are those, like yourself who insist there is a difference and then there are those who use it interchangeably…🤷🏼‍♂️

Totally! That’s what I wanted to say. It just sounds wrong