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Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

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Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#171

Post by lxgr »

iraqmtpizza wrote: post #81
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is because in Germany they're taking a loss due to actual competition, and making it up in other countries like Austria where they rake in higher profits than in their home-land.

So anti-competitive practices are the norm in Austria but no one would dare try it in Germany? Truly bizarre theory.

I wouldn't say "the norm", but Austria is lagging behind Germany in the CPI for a reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

Government project tenders are often notoriously intransparent, as ironically evidenced by the fact that the government hasn't been able to stand up a price comparison database for months, as also mentioned in TFA.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#172

Post by jeffbee »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #169

Governments should mandate published prices for all goods sold in supermarkets, it would be good for competition and almost trivial for the companies to publish CSV files with barcode, price, start and end dates. Of course doing do would be disastrous for the supermarkets, so I can imagine they would fight and lobby politicians vigorously.

Is there not a EU-level research service that does this? I would be surprised if there is not something like the USDA's Economic Research Service, that has price data on virtually everything you can eat, going back 50 years.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#173

Post by dazc »

living_room_pc wrote: post #94
iraqmtpizza wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you ever tried building a house? it's one of the least free markets there is. the quickest way to get arrested is to buy cheap land and start putting up houses willy nilly

Not only that, have you ever tried understanding building code in order to construct a "legal" residence? Sometimes it is regulated to the point where I could not build a house unless it had the right angle and shade of red terracotta roofing tiles.

House builders in the UK can employ independent, non Govt, inspectors to ensure they are building to regulations (our equiv of your building code). You can imagine how well that works since these inspectors only have one client.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#174

Post by FirmwareBurner »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #163
MandieD wrote: post #161

Prices should be slightly higher in Austria, because the VAT (Mehrwertsteuer) is 20% for most consumer goods, and 10% for food, vs. Germany’s 19% and 7%, but not as outlandishly so as Mario’s data have shown. For American readers: VAT is included in the shelf price, rather than tacked on at the register like sales taxes are in the US. Upside: fewer surprises at the register. Downside: it’s less visible.

Prices should be higher for a variety of reasons and they have historically already been higher. It's not just the VAT but particularly super market density, lack of competition on the market, general cost of doing business in the country. This is a home made problem for the most part, but there is very little appetite to do something about it. Austria in many ways is drowning in very expensive regulation, has high t…

Excuse me, but what expensive regulation and high grocery store workers' taxation are you talking about that's responsible for making prices so much higher than in Germany?

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#175

Post by atourgates »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #169

Governments should mandate published prices for all goods sold in supermarkets, it would be good for competition and almost trivial for the companies to publish CSV files with barcode, price, start and end dates. Of course doing do would be disastrous for the supermarkets, so I can imagine they would fight and lobby politicians vigorously.

> Of course doing do would be disastrous for the supermarkets

I'm not sure this would be true, at least in the United States.

WalMart used to have a tool where you could scan your receipt in their app, they'd compare prices to competitors and if they found a lower price, you'd get a rebate.

It wasn't that popular or successful.

Can't find much info online, but here's an old discussion on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/2x9ajh/walmart_app_...

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#176

Post by wongarsu »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #39
midasuni wrote: post #3

“asymmetric information warfare” I think that’s a great term in explaining how “the free market” doesn’t work.

It has also been shown that much of the population prefers buying something for $x if the price tag claims it has been discounted rather than $x without the claim of a discount.

Assuming an efficient market, price strongly correlates to (some measure of) value. Now if I over you something that's worth $5, or alternatively something that's worth $10 but that for a short you can purchase for just $5, which item do you choose?

Of course ideally you would properly evaluate how much the item is worth, in utility, quality, longevity, social status, resale value, ethical production, etc. But that's difficult (often on purpose). The seller knows what the item is worth, you have to guess, or just use price as a weak proxy.

So in a sense, people preferring discounted items is an effect of asymmetric information

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#177

Post by FirmwareBurner »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #158
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is evidence that the prices they charge in Austria are often significantly higher than in Germany, meaning higher profits per sale, at the expense of the consumer who's wages are lower than those in Germany, so it's a double whammy.

> There is evidence that the prices they charge in Austria are often significantly higher than in Germany The cost of doing business in Austria is significantly higher for supermarkets. On the one hand because Austria has many more supermarkets to begin with per chain, secondly because of the high cost of labor in the country. Comparing countries that way is not trivial.

Where exactly is this extra higher cost you're talking about?

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#179

Post by FirmwareBurner »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #159
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The retailers have been questioned regularly why they overcharge in Austria compared to Germany, and they never cited extra wages(lower than Germany FYI), business or tax overhead as the reason, but rather beat it around the bush saying "we're only charging what the market will bare and this is what the Austrian market bares", basically admitting they're screwing you and getting away with it, especially that they oft…

That does not reflect actual reality. Retailers have answered plenty times why they are charging higher prices in Austria compared to Germany and the arguments are hard to ignore (higher cost of doing business, higher taxes, higher density of super markets, more rural delivery requirements etc.). Specifically on that point: > extra wages(lower than Germany FYI) That is incorrect, the cost of an employee in the grocer…

Which higher taxes? Which is higher cost of doing business?

Please be specific, otherwise it's just parroting the fake corporate propaganda of the supermarket chains.

Re: Tracking Austrian grocery prices by scraping store sites

#180

Post by dublinben »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #169

Governments should mandate published prices for all goods sold in supermarkets, it would be good for competition and almost trivial for the companies to publish CSV files with barcode, price, start and end dates. Of course doing do would be disastrous for the supermarkets, so I can imagine they would fight and lobby politicians vigorously.

Supermarkets seem like an undeserving target for this scrutiny. Profit margins for grocery stores are only 1-3%, so they're hardly engaging in price gouging. The average U.S. household spends less than 10% of its monthly budget on groceries and other food.[0] This number is half of what it was in the middle of the 20th Century, and probably lower than any time in history.[1]

[0] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-household-budget#food

[1] https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2020/november/average-s...

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