Price Archives - Page 2 of 4 - understand-culture

The Vocabulary of Price Tricks

der Mondpreis — Moon price. A price set at random and far too high. In retail jargon it is also an invented “recommended price,” printed only so that the real price looks like a bargain.

das Lockvogelangebot — Decoy-bird offer. A Lockvogel was a captive bird used to lure other birds. The offer draws the customer in for something else. Competition law bans several forms of it.

der Apothekenpreis — Pharmacy price. In colloquial use, a price that is out of proportion to the product.

die Abzocke — Rip-off. The word comes from zocken, to gamble.

der Nepp — Overcharging. Das ist der reinste Nepp! That is a pure rip-off!

The 30-Day Price Rule

Since 28 May 2022, a German shop that advertises a price cut must state the lowest price it charged in the 30 days before the cut. The rule is Section 11 of the Preisangabenverordnung, the price display regulation. Aldi Süd tested it. In a brochure it offered bananas at 1.29 euros per kilo and advertised a 23 percent reduction. The reduction was measured from the last price, 1.69 euros. The lowest price of the past 30 days was also 1.29 euros, and it appeared only in small print. The consumer center of Baden-Württemberg sued. On 26 September 2024 the European Court of Justice ruled that a reduction must be calculated from that lowest earlier price. The Düsseldorf regional court then ruled against Aldi.

No Price Talks After the Bids Are Opened

When a German public body builds a school or a road, it awards the work under the VOB/A, the standard award rules for construction. Section 15 covers the time between the opening of the bids and the award. The client may ask a bidder only for explanations, for example about whether his price is reasonable. Then the rule is plain: Verhandlungen, besonders über Änderung der Angebote oder Preise, sind unstatthaft. Negotiations, especially about changing the bids or the prices, are not permitted. The only exception covers alternative bids and bids based on a performance program. There, small technical changes may have to be agreed, and the price may change with them.

Same Drug, Same Price

A prescription drug costs the same at every pharmacy in Germany. The Medicines Act requires ein einheitlicher Apothekenabgabepreis, a uniform pharmacy price. The Arzneimittelpreisverordnung, the drug price regulation, builds that price by formula. The pharmacy takes its purchase price, adds 3 percent, and adds a fixed fee per pack. On 19 October 2016 the European Court of Justice ruled that this price binding could not be applied to mail-order pharmacies in other EU countries. German pharmacies remained bound. Parliament answered with the Vor-Ort-Apotheken-Stärkungsgesetz, the law to strengthen local pharmacies. From 15 December 2020 it banned rebates on prescription drugs for patients with statutory health insurance, also for foreign mail-order pharmacies.

Our Advertising Is the Low Price

Unsere Werbung liegt im billigen Preis. Our advertising lies in the low price. Karl Albrecht said this in 1953. After the 1948 currency reform he and his brother had rebuilt their mother’s shop around a small range of goods and low prices. The discounter Aldi grew from it. When Aldi cut the price of its cheapest 250-gram pack of butter from 1.45 to 1.39 euros on 1 August 2023, it was national news. Aldi called itself the Preisführer, the price leader. Edeka and Rewe said their supermarkets and discount chains would follow.

The competition over price takes place between the retailers, in public. The customer is not part of it.

At any price

At any price. Used in German almost exclusively as a warning. Er wollte es um jeden Preis — he wanted it at any price — describes someone who has lost their judgment, not someone who is determined.

The price is right

The German title of the television show known in English as The Price Is Right, in which contestants guess the retail price of consumer goods. The premise only works if prices are knowable — if there is a right answer to guess. The show is built on the assumption that every item has one correct price.

Greed is great

Greed is great — an advertising slogan run by the electronics chain Saturn from 2002, shortly after the discount laws were repealed. It became one of the most argued-about slogans in German advertising history, blamed in public debate for a coarsening of commercial culture. The company eventually dropped it.

A campaign celebrating the pursuit of low prices caused a national argument about what the country had become.

What costs nothing is worth nothing

What costs nothing is worth nothing. Said in German about free advice, free offers and heavy discounts. It reverses the usual direction of suspicion. The doubt attaches not to the expensive thing but to the cheap one.

Worth its price

Worth its price. The German word for something that is good value, and it is built from Preis and wert. Not cheap. Not a bargain. Worth what it costs, which is a different and higher claim.