What do Germans buy at the supermarket?

DW (English)

Germans love bargains especially when it comes to grocery shopping. Find out with DW how Germans shop for food.

Transcript

00:00Today, Michael is doing his grocery shopping.

00:08Like 22% of Germans, Saturday is his preferred shopping day.

00:12The highest consumed food products in Germany are milk, butter, cheese, eggs, vegetables,

00:17bread and meat.

00:19Oh, he's forgotten something.

00:28Better not forget the Pfand, aka the bottles for recycling.

00:34In Germany, there are broadly two types of supermarkets, discounters like Lidl and Aldi

00:39and, well, regular supermarkets.

00:49Discounters generally offer a cheaper, more no-frills shopping experience, because after

00:53all, who needs fancy labels and displays when you can have bargains?

00:58But first up, the Pfand machine.

01:03In Germany, when you buy a plastic bottle, you pay a small deposit on it.

01:07And then when you recycle the bottle, you get the money back in the form of a voucher.

01:15Look, I know we laugh at the Germans sometimes, but this is actually a pretty great system.

01:25We already know that Germans love bread, and they have approximately one million different

01:29types of it, figuratively, of course.

01:39He's gone for the loaf.

01:44This is a Bordschneidermaschine, aka a bread-cutting machine.

01:48A pearl of German engineering, it allows you to get perfectly sliced bread faster than

01:52you can say, I can't use a bread knife.

01:55Michael selects the thickness of his slices, 10 millimetres.

02:02Look at that, majestic.

02:08Like 42% of Germans, Michael buys his daily essentials at a discounter.

02:14Thrifty.

02:23Germans genuinely care about reducing plastic waste, and single-use plastic bags are not

02:28only a cardinal sin, but forbidden.

02:31So Michael has brought his own tote bags.

02:35One, two, three, four.

02:41After picking up the rest of his essentials, it's time for stop two on the supermarket

02:45sweep, the regular supermarket.

02:49Miss E.L. has arrived at Edeka.

02:53Regular supermarkets tend to have a larger selection of products, including bigger bio

02:58or organic sections, from which 33% of Germans like to buy their fruit and veggies.

03:04Under the basics, popular everyday purchases are cookies, savoury snacks, chocolate bars

03:12and sweet snacks.

03:17And of course, as a German, Michael picks up a beer.

03:22Compared with other European countries, in Germany, self-checkout adoption is lagging.

03:27Why?

03:28One, Germans love to pay with cash, and two, they're protective over their personal data.

03:35Like with all things German, when it comes to checkouts, there are rules.

03:41One, line up your items logically.

03:44Put hard and heavy things at the front so you can pack them first.

03:47Maximum efficiency.

03:49Two, if someone has one item, let them go before you.

03:55Three, if another checkout opens, we're opening cash three, abandon all sense of order.

04:03Four, don't trust whoever sees it first.

04:22And finally, prepare to be passed.

04:33Another successful shop for Michael.

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