Aldi already increased the prices for about 160 items two weeks ago, and a week later another 20 items became more expensive. Consumers reacted by hoarding oil and flour – for whatever reason. Rewe subsidiary Penny and other competitors have announced that they will follow.
The consequences of rising gas and oil costs were first seen in bread, rolls and other baked goods. The costs of heating the furnaces rose, then those of the fertilizers, which in turn made the crops more expensive. Now there are delivery bottlenecks – due to the war – for the import of Ukrainian wheat and other urgently needed goods.
According to a calculation by the auditing company PwC Germany based on current figures from the Federal Statistical Office and the Ifo Institute, consumers will face additional costs of 242 euros per month, i.e. 2904 euros for the entire year. Of this, 65 euros are to be spent on groceries, 89 euros on rising costs such as electricity, gas and heating oil and 40 euros on increasing transport spending – the rest on inflation and other product groups.
Aldi wants to remain the price leader: “Because of their simple structures, discounters are better positioned than full-range retailers when it comes to costs. That’s why we won’t have to increase the sales prices as much as supermarkets and specialist retailers,” explained Erik Döbele, national purchasing manager at Aldi Süd, to the “WAZ”.
Overall, however, life becomes more expensive. According to Statistics Austria, inflation in March was 6.8 percent – in Germany it was even 7.3 percent and in the entire euro area it was 7.5 percent.
