The following article from Germany describes a new phenomenon, the result of accelerating price inflation: the use of anti-theft devices on ordinary food staples displayed in supermarkets.
If the trend continues, one can envision a situation in which food stores will resemble Korean markets found in inner-city neighborhoods in the USA. All merchandise will be inaccessible to the customer, protected by bulletproof Plexiglas barriers. Customers will tell the clerk what they want, and hand their cash (or CBDC cards) through the slot before receiving their purchases. $30 for a loaf of bread. $75 for a dozen eggs. Forget meat — can’t possibly afford that. And expect the price to rise another 10% in the next couple of weeks.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Report24. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:
Price explosions: German supermarkets attach anti-theft devices to staple foods
In the best Germany of all times, groceries now apparently have to be provided with anti-theft devices based on the English model: the first citizens seem to be driven to acts of desperation in view of the price explosions. This does not affect high-priced items such as champagne, but staple foods. Are these now becoming luxuries?
Inflation is causing food prices to skyrocket, and further price increases are forecast for the next three months. This was the result of a survey by the ifo Institute, as reported by ARD. More and more people can no longer afford these horrendous prices and are driven to desperate acts — obviously the number of thefts is increasing. The first supermarkets are taking countermeasures — with anti-theft devices.
A supermarket in Berlin-Weißensee has now attached security markings to some types of meat — yellow stickers with the inscription “Secured article”. While cheap meat with the husbandry level one, such as rump steak, lamb skewers, steak from the prime rib of a young bull or Argentinean steak, is secured here, the yellow warnings in a Lidl branch in Tegel are for higher-priced meat (beef fillet, steak and soup meat).
The anti-theft devices also seem to be used in other supermarket branches. On Twitter, a user shared a photo showing the yellow stickers on butter. She wrote: “I think this is insane, Lidl! Have we gotten to the point where regular butter has to be protected against theft with a security tag?”
[Twitter photo]
When asked by Bild, Aldi did not rule out such theft-prevention either, but, like Lidl, Rewe, Netto and Norma, did not want to comment publicly on security measures.
Citizens are driven to desperate acts
The development is worrying. Accordingly, Adolf Bauer, President of the Social Association Germany, said: “The fact that supermarkets and discounters have come so far that they do not categorically rule out anti-theft devices for food leaves us stunned. It is more than obvious that staple foods must not become even more expensive. It is imperative that we prevent the majority of people from no longer being able to afford this and that their last resort is theft.” And he warns politicians: “We must not leave people alone with their existential fears. Because otherwise the social division will continue to increase and social unrest could no longer be ruled out.”
According to the consumer protection center, food has become more expensive in all food groups: “In the past 20 years, food prices have risen significantly less than other living costs. While inflation was still just under 1.5 percent on average between 2000 and 2019, the price increase from July 2021 to July 2022 was 14.8 percent.” [Lucky them. Food prices have gone up in South Africa since the “Mad Cow Plandemic” of the late 1990s, and each and every time the oil price increases, and the food never decreases when the oil price drops, either.]
Additional security measures are already being taken in Great Britain. Supermarkets from the chains Sainsbury’s, Coop, Tesco and Aldi provide baby milk, vitamin supplements, steak, cheese and butter.
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