Germans have a word for taking a specialist’s advice in a shop and then buying somewhere else. It is Beratungsklau, theft of advice. In August 2025 the polling firm YouGov asked 2,009 people about it for the German Press Agency. About one in three said they had taken advice in a shop and then bought the product online after comparing prices. Almost half rejected the practice. Fourteen percent approved of it, and 34 percent were undecided.
The advice is valued enough that using it without paying has its own name. For many buyers, the price still decides.