The German Food Code, the Deutsches Lebensmittelbuch, describes how foods are made and what they may be called. Many vegan and vegetarian products looked like meat products and carried similar names. Without common rules, products appeared that did not match what consumers expected. On 21 August 2018 the German Food Code Commission unanimously adopted guidelines for these products. Names such as Schnitzel, Gulasch or Frikadellen may be borrowed. Names of specific sausages, such as Bierschinken, are usually not used for meat substitutes.
retail
Haggling in a Department Store
In July 2014 the Berlin newspaper taz sent Kamal M. into a Karstadt department store to haggle. He was 44 and a well-known trader at Berlin flea markets. The paper explained why the experiment was worth reporting. Bargaining in a store is allowed, auch wenn es kaum einer weiß, even if hardly anyone knows it. Kamal M. failed with a suitcase that was already reduced from 189 to 99 euros. With shoes he got 10 percent, the most the salesman was allowed to give. With a set of Fissler pots he brought the price down from 299 to 224 euros, and a knife came with it. His advice was never to haggle in front of other customers. He also avoided the word Rabatt, discount, and spoke of a price reduction.
The Expert’s Estimate Comes First
Bares für Rares, cash for rarities, has run on ZDF since 2013. Horst Lichter hosts it. People bring an old object to sell. Before any haggling, an expert examines the object and estimates its value. The seller names a price. A seller whose lowest acceptable price is above the expert’s estimate gets no Händlerkarte, the card that admits him to the dealers’ room. Inside, the dealers bid and bargain, and they do not know the estimate. The seller may refuse the best bid and take the object home. An evening special on 15 May 2017 had 6.38 million viewers.
The haggling is the entertainment. It starts only after an expert has said what the object is worth.
Negotiable Basis
VB or VHB. Every German who has sold a bicycle or a sofa through classified ads knows the letters. They stand for Verhandlungsbasis, basis for negotiation. A seller who writes “100 Euro VB” announces that the price is open. One who writes Festpreis, fixed price, announces that it is not. The tech magazine GIGA tells buyers that sellers will often go down 10 to 25 percent from a VB price. It also warns them not to offer five euros and a bar of chocolate for an item at 100 euros.
The price law for businesses has a matching rule. A trader must state the total price, and may add a note that he is willing to negotiate. The note is allowed only where it matches die allgemeine Verkehrsauffassung, the general view of what is customary.
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.
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.
Bought Is Bought
Gekauft ist gekauft, bought is bought. The consumer advice center in Hamburg uses the phrase for a basic rule of German shopping. A customer who buys something in a store has no legal right to bring it back because she no longer likes it. Einzelhändler sind beim Kauf in einem Ladengeschäft nicht verpflichtet, Waren zurückzunehmen. Retailers are not obliged to take back goods bought in a store. Many shops take goods back anyway. This is called Kulanz, goodwill, and the shop sets the conditions. It may give a voucher instead of cash, for example. Defective goods are a different matter. For purchases made online, the law gives the buyer 14 days to withdraw.
Penny’s True Prices
For one week from 31 July 2023, the discount supermarket Penny charged wahre Preise, true prices, for nine of its more than 3,000 products. Scientists from the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg and the University of Greifswald had calculated the prices. They added the costs that food production causes for soil, climate, water and health. Maasdamer cheese became 94 percent more expensive. Vienna sausages became 88 percent more expensive. A vegan schnitzel rose by only 5 percent. Penny said it would give the extra revenue to a project for climate protection and family farms in the Alpine region.
What the Car Is Worth
A German who sells a used car often asks first what the car is worth nach Schwacke. The Schwacke list first appeared on 15 November 1957. It gives the residual value of used vehicles by model, year, equipment and mileage, independent of the condition of the single car. People call it simply Schwacke. Banks use it to decide how much they will lend against a car. The Deutsche Automobil Treuhand, the DAT, was founded in 1931 by the associations of the car industry and the car trade. It also publishes used-car valuations and forecasts of residual values.