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Rent is expensive in Berlin for sure, but supermarkets are still way cheaper than Austria
A lot better too. Rewe has ton of options and quality food compared to billa. But I think the supermarkets in germany are better than anywhere else in EU.
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I'm talking about laws and enforcement of laws against anti-competitive practices like price fixing. Either enforcement is wildly different and there's a shitload of money to be made by undercutting the Austrian grocery cartel or the price fixing theory is just a socialist talking point.
but in order to do that for groceries you have to open shops in austria which makes it much more difficult compared to products that can be sold online.
Ask an Austrian hardware store owner why he doesn't sell food when he can supposedly undercut grocery stores and still make 5% profit on every item sold. I bet you anything he'll say that's bs.
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German-only [1], but Google Translate gets the gist of it [2]. [1] https://helpv2.orf.at/stories/1684683/index.html [2] https://helpv2-orf-at.translate.goog/stories/1684683/index.h...
If we are talking about that story, that is 12 years ago, not 6 and relates to a different fee structure, not raising of prices. So while I agree that this is a terrible development, I'm not sure that's what we're discussing here. More specifically after 2011 there was a huge downwards pressure on the market coming from increasing competition from virtual operators with decreasing prices.
Are you really arguing that all operators introduced a yearly fee of exactly the same amount, and in a very short period of time, was somehow perfectly balanced out by a drop in monthly rates, and on average nobody ended up paying more?
Yes, Austria in general has a very healthy competitive market for mobile phone plans, but this particular move just looks extremely coordinated.
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So anti-competitive practices are the norm in Austria but no one would dare try it in Germany? Truly bizarre theory.
Matter of fact is that crossing the border to Germany will make your shopping 30+% cheaper. Make of that what you will, but it’s the same companies (Rewe, Aldi, Lidl).
If grocery stores were suddenly capable of 43 percent margins there would be absolute pandemonium in the markets and stocks would skyrocket. Retailers in every industry would be switching to food sales en masse. People would be flying food in by aircraft. You see just the opposite. Food retailers' stocks are down a lot year-to-date.
I’ve actually built a scraper for Disney World holidays[1] and found some interesting hacks to get cheaper deals, for example purchasing separate hotel tickets lasting a part of the full stay. I plan to make a holiday inflation index out of this eventually.
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If we are talking about that story, that is 12 years ago, not 6 and relates to a different fee structure, not raising of prices. So while I agree that this is a terrible development, I'm not sure that's what we're discussing here. More specifically after 2011 there was a huge downwards pressure on the market coming from increasing competition from virtual operators with decreasing prices.
> relates to a different fee structure, not raising of prices Are you really arguing that all operators introduced a yearly fee of exactly the same amount , and in a very short period of time, was somehow perfectly balanced out by a drop in monthly rates, and on average nobody ended up paying more? Yes, Austria in general has a very healthy competitive market for mobile phone plans, but this particular move just look…
I'm arguing that after 2011 when the first operator introduced those fees, the cost of mobile phone plans decreased for many years until around 2019. It's also that not all operators introduced those fees and not all operators did at the same time. The main reason why many operators started charging with this fee structure is pretty obvious: it makes the monthly cost appear lower than it is. It's a form of sanctioned price in-transparency.
//EDIT: the main reason for the introduction of that Servicepauschale was that for a while internet service providers where required to participate in the now illegal "Vorratesdatenspeicherung". The pauschale was generally understood to cover the cost of the infrastructure for it.
Lots of comments here saying Germany is 30 percent cheaper than Austria. Isn’t living in Vienna much cheaper than living in big cities in Germany like Berlin and Munich? So overall it’s still a better deal to live in Vienna than in Munich.
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wow, Metro AG's stock is doing horribly this year. but they're supposedly raking in tons of cash from Austria? EDIT: SPAR Group, Inc. is doing very badly as well. I think this theory is highly suspect
If they're doing so poorly, why are they giving such steep discounts in Germany and not charging Austrian prices to bump up their margins? Are they stupid to leave so much money on the table?