Off topic & small talk: Chatterbox (Page 1409)

Olli_Eule wrote on 05.02.2025 at 21:29:
why am I actually the only one who notices that prices are falling in the food market


400 grams of butter cheese was once at 3.50 euros and now the price has remained at 2.99 euros for over a year.

A tub of coleslaw was already 1.69 euros and now it costs 1.49 euros again.

But these are probably a few exceptions? Because they are private labels?

Brands are getting more expensive, that's true, or not more expensive but with less content, like Pringles chips.

But as I said, since I usually only buy private labels, I notice that the prices tend to go down again?

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Butterbrezel wrote on 05.02.2025 18:11:

Are you such a "we didn't find you because we didn't feel like ringing the doorbell even though the recipient is waiting for the package and could open the door immediately" deliverer or a proper one?

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JJepsa96 wrote on 05.02.2025 at 22:57:

A proper mail and daily newspaper delivery person at night.

You don't earn riches but it's enough to live on in a small town and I'm my own boss.

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Butterbrezel wrote on 05.02.2025 19:09:

Aso ok, deliverer for me is -> DHL, Hermes, DPD. I don't think you can pay rent by delivering newspapers.


Parcel delivery is an important job that, like many others in society, is underpaid. But because of the underpayment, there are also a lot of people who simply don't work properly. I've had the most negative experiences with DHL, but that's different for everyone in every town.

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Falko wrote on 05.02.2025 at 23:01:

You always have to go to bed at times, just like the baker who has to start baking in the middle of the night

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frapi07 wrote on 05.02.2025 at 21:02:
Doesn't help, as prices would also rise. You can see what has happened since there has been a minimum wage. Prices are being raised in order to be able to pay the wage increases. But you could have saved yourself the trouble, as this problem has been known for a long time (wage-price spiral).

The problem is that there will always be jobs that are poorly paid. The reason is simple: these jobs do not require high qualifications. The job may be physically demanding, but otherwise anyone can do it. Even if you can barely speak German. You also don't necessarily need a degree for the job.

What's more, there are still people who do this work for little money. If that weren't the case, we would make adjustments here too and increase pay - just like in the catering industry after the pandemic when they were short of staff.

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Stromberg wrote on 06.02.2025 at 10:32 am:

You have to look at this in a more differentiated way. Since the usual wage - price spiral - argument is often brought to you from the employer's point of view, here, for example, from the union's point of view:

https://www.dgb.de/politik/wirtschaft-und-transformation/wirtschaft-finanz-und-steuerpolitik/lohn-preis-spirale/

Of course, it is not neutral either, but it shows that rising prices are only partly to do with wages, and that in recent years, in addition to energy etc., arbitrary price increases have been imposed by companies with strong market positions.

But there are certainly areas where rising wages must have a direct impact on prices.
For example, we have had wage increases of around 10% over the last two years, and this must clearly have an impact on our hourly wages, even if not in the region of these 10%.

So of course there will always be low-paid jobs, or in other words some jobs will always be the lowest paid, logically. But I do think that it would be possible to pay every full-time job enough to make a decent living.

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frapi07 wrote on 06.02.2025 at 11:10 am:

Yes, I've read through the article and it's certainly not neutral. But it's clear that wage increases are only one of the factors, you're right of course.

I know the before/after energy costs as I have a little insight into a catering business. Raw material prices have also risen, that's also true. Ham etc. I occasionally find out how much you paid before/after. If you used to spend €500 for 3 days at the Metro, today you spend €750-800. But ask yourself why food prices are also rising. Sure, energy prices are higher, but so are staff costs. In the last 4 years we have had a +-23% increase in the minimum wage (€10 - €12.80). Energy prices may also have seen an increase like this, but otherwise I can't remember a factor increasing so much in such a short space of time.

At the moment, it's simply not possible to make a decent living with a "low-paid job" because everyone is stuck on their margins and prices are being increased. The problem is that everyone is raising prices and you only get a salary. Some don't get pay rises, others do, but that's not enough to cover all the price rises (especially because the rises are always gross). The state can't even do anything about it. Some people (I won't mention any names) want to lower food prices by reducing VAT. What do you think will happen? The tax will initially be lowered, prices will fall for a short period, but manufacturers will then readjust and push the price up again so that they can recoup the difference as additional win. We had the temporary tax cut from 19% to 16%. At the time, this 3% only amounted to a few cents. But did that make a difference? No, it didn't.

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