There are differences in eggs in Germany. 1) Industrial farming in boxes 2) Barn farming (Bodenhaltung) 3) Free range farming (Freilandhaltung) 4) Organic in combination with 2) or 3) (Bio) 5) Farm eggs, chicken breed that doesn't lay an egg every day, so large eggs (Bauerhof Eier) The higher the number, the higher the price. The price does not necessarily refer to the quality, but also to the way the animals are kept.
Thank you for the compilation. I would just like to mention that 4. ‘organic’ (Bio) is not comparable with 2. and 3. and there is no combination: ‘Organic’ also always means more free-range area for the chickens. An ‘organic’ label would not even be possible with barn farming (2).
A note on the first category: Due to animal cruelty concerns, this kind of egg farming will be forbidden in Germany by the end of 2025. Right now it is already only allowed as so called "Kleingruppenhaltung" (small group husbandry) in which the chickens get more space and are kept in larger groups of 40 - 60 animals per box.
@@mille_fiori There's no category for it but arguably organic barn eggs should be a thing: Chicken don't actually dislike barns, they feel safe and secure there and there's health advantages to barn raising because the birds aren't exposed to random pathogens. To make the whole thing organic, I'd say a) have only organic food and b) require them to be able to hunt earthworms, instead of just picking up grains from the floor.
I don't think so, I bought one chicken breast at the teke. I think it was 1,49 and didn't think much about it. And at checkout I saw it was 5 eur! For 1 chicken breast. Still have the receipt. 5.05 eur for 0.282 kg. the date 09.09.2024
The real sponsor of this episode is:.... ALDI. A very insightful and perfectly prepared presentation of products from this store. I have not seen better publicity. Thanks to you, I am changing my grocery store to... ALDI.
I think for eggs and meat, one needs to also compare across farming types. Free range and bio is more than battery hens and mass produced beef and pork where the animals have a low quality of life. In Europe I feel the norm leans towards free range and bio.
The main reason bananas in the US are cheaper than in Germany is because of shipping costs. Shipping from Columbia or Ecuador to the US is way faster and cheaper than to Germany. Hence the price difference.
While seemingly logical, it can't explain all of the difference as bananas are cheaper in the Netherlands (right next door) than in Germany (and Belgium for that matter).
sorry, but my inner "klugscheißer" kicks in and dinkel is spelt in english a variety of wheat that is more expensive than the regular wheat. so the bread comparison is not that accurate.
It is an EU-regulation: "Throughout the EU, sellers must indicate product prices clearly enough for you to easily compare similar products and make informed choices - no matter how they're packaged or how many units are sold together. Companies are legally obliged to be completely clear about the price you'll have to pay when they advertise or sell something to you. Complete price information The price quoted in an offer must include all taxes and delivery charges. If there might be extra costs that can't be calculated in advance, you must also be told about that upfront."
The egg comparison does have more layers in behalf of costs actually when you go into the needy greedy detail.. US eggs are produced by battery farming therefore need to be chlorified and then fridged in order to be a save product..while due to battery farming you´ll get a way higher margin of eggs per square meter of the facility = which makes eggs way cheaper due to the way higher number of eggs which are produced in way less space and then brought into the market (= economic outcome of supply + demand) but due to the additional needed process of chlorifying + fridging that then also adds more costs before they can be sold to the customer European eggs are not battery farmed due to the EU animal protection law = way lower margin of eggs are produced per square meter of the facilty therefore due to supply + demand those are more expensive but there are then no further costs because those don´t need to be chlorified + don´t need to be fridged before they can be sold to the customer A similar thing is to say about beef...in the US it is allowed to use hormons for growth and even cloning cows but in the EU don´t = So US cows deliver more meat + more milk per cow in comparision to cows in the EU which has of course an impact to the selling price....despite the question of the impact of people´s health which would open an other "can of worms" so to say.
Hi Ashton, that was great, thanks. I am from Munich, but I live on Maui, HI, and I love to visit my homeland, Oberbayern, once a year for a month, usually in July. Anyway, the price you quoted for Aldi USA is around 2.5 times as much here on Maui. No Aldi here, so Costco is my life saver. When I go to Aldi in the small Bavarian town, where I stay with friends, I get 'Kaufrausch'. Meaning, I get euphoric, because I can fill my cart with pretty much everything my heart desires, including booze, tasty tomatoes and walk out happily with a EUR 50 invoice, scratching my head how everything can be so ridiculously cheap. The only times I stray from Aldi, and go to Edeka or Lidl, is when they have Ritter Sport Nougat on sale for 59c, or 79c last July, then I raid the shelves to the horrified look of the cashier, as they don't have limits on sale items in Germany. And that's all I have in my checked luggage, around 30 pounds of chocolate, roughly a year's supply😂 . And I will never ever stop over in Phoenix in 114 F again, because I ended up with a lot of 'mousse au chocolate' last July. 😋
@@Lysandra-8 Already booked my next year's trip via Anchorage, Alaska. But who knows, maybe at the speed momma Earth is heating up, it will be 114 up there by next year. 🥵
It is always funny to me that Americans who are angry at angry for asking for a 25¢ deposit don't know about the plastic chips you can use instead. I barely put real money in the shopping cart here in Germany. 😅
Even though you checked the numbers 3 times, the price of chicken breasts at Hen House must be off by 10 times. 16,34 Euros per 100 grams is 163,40 per kilo, that must be wrong.
Leaving a quarter is one of the little things that can make the day a little better. It is petty by definition, but petty things can build up to affect your whole day. I love doing that petty little anonymous act of random kindness and it helps me even more than whoever gets to use the cart next.
Pro tip for carts: it doesn´t have to be a coin. Anything that has right thickness and radius works. Like rounded key heads etc. I used a whittled wooden chip attached to my keychain for a while, but it broke at some point. Luckily I found an actual keychain that comes with a detachable circular piece meant for shopping carts sometime later and I have been using that ever since.
@@vanasaabas I will grant the keychain solution is an interesting solution for yourself, but I was talking about a random act of kindness - not how to beat the system.
It is important to note that the products you bought are produced in a different way in the USA an Europe. That makes it very difficult to make a fair comparison. Have a look a the project "Food for thought" by Kadir van Lohuizen (book, docu series and exposition) to see where your food comes form
Ashton, just one small detail on your tables and overall price display throughout the video for readability. Please, use in a column on the left and the right side the same currency as this mixture ($ (€) | € ($)) makes it hard to read. So, something like in a same column (€($) | €($)). Otherwise, use of colors for readability was good.
Spongier doesn't means softer but not outright more porous/dry. I remember having no problems spreading jam, peanut butter, etc on "Toast" in the US. Nevertheless it tasted way different and I still remember all the additives on the package.
The US does not use imperial units but US units. In most cases it makes little difference, but a US gallon equals 3.785411784 litres and an imperial gallon equals 4.54609 litres.
Wenn man bei Rewe die teuerste Milch nimmt, ist der Unterschied natürlich so hoch. Die Hausmarke ist überall ähnlich günstig und weicht, wenn überhaupt, nur um ein paar Cent ab. Daher hinkt der Vergleich.
@@bn1435 If you want to point out and be a smartass about something, doing it about something that is already pointed out twice in the video doesn't really make you look particularly clever.
Sometimes a dairy product in Germany is actually from the same manufacturer for cheap and brand option. They have this oval label ("Identitätskennzeichen", like: DE BY 12345 EG) that shows the producer, that way you can tell if it's the same. Edit: That could be a reason why there is no difference for Rewe and Aldi for Yoghurt.
The establishment of several "banana republics" in central amerca made the big price difference! ;-) Very detailed and professional ! Thank you. Have a nice sunday.
I was so scared seeing the you reach into the almost empty box of bananas. I worked at a German supermarket and funnily enough a friend of mine worked on a banana field in Vietnam during his work and travel right after school. He noticed that there are tons spiders and insects on the bananas (back in 2006) and even the bath wasn't guaranteed to get rid of them. Also some bananas grew directly in plastic bags carrying spiders in them. I had two encounter in the fruit section stacking up banana boxes seeing a spider. A customer also once reported a spider but I wasn't the person working in the fruit section anymore so I couldn't verify. I have the irrational fear of finding a spider amongst those bananas even though they most likely won't bite and I'm not scared of spiders anywhere else. Amazing video as always Ashton! Been there since the very start of the channel and it is always a pleasure seeing someone with a similar degree not being lazy and doing all the work necessary to find the best common demoninator to compare everything fairly.
Should we mention the differences in quality between the US and EU versions? In the 15 European countries we visited, groceries were consistently cheaper than in the US and also much better in quality: more sustainably produced, far more likely to be locally sourced, less packaging, and better tasting. We got used to the smaller portions because the meals were more satisfying.
Aldi Süd = Aldi in the US. Trader Joe's = Aldi Nord. And, as far as I know, in Germany, Aldi is a really good employer and employees get fairly high wages and all the etcetera. In the US, it appears to be ok., but not as great as in Germany. I'm not sure about teir position regarding trade unions or works councils (which is mandatory in Germany if the market or whatever business had more than a certain number of employees). I am also not sure about the nature of the contracts Aldi has with the producers. I think it has to do with these contracts that Aldi can offer such good quality at affordable prices.
The yoghurt prices in Germany are no surprise at all. Those small yoghurt portions have a very specific job in the german grocery shops: to pull in customers. As a result they are sold at absolute cut throat prices. Even upmarket shops like REWE are forced to sell them at 0% profit or even at a loss, to compete with the Aldi-prices. It seems Aldi-Süd tries to get the same system going in the USA. In general the overall profit margin for grocery products in discounters is incredible low in Germany, somewhere between 2-4%. Which is almost impossible to compete with in the american market.
Nice comparison. So much work. But it makes a lot of sense, beef is always way cheaper in the U.S., pork on the other hand is way more expensive than in Germany. One thing, though. The chicken breast in your comparison with Hen House and Rewe, there is no way, that you pay $81/pound at Hen House or €99/kg at Rewe.
@@snygg1993 No, it is cheaper in Germany than in the US. - 7.74$ for 1.13lbs converts to 1.51$ per 100 g, not 0.73$ per 100 g as claimed at 14:31 . This video is full of sloppy mistakes, look at the "Receipt" at 14:19 the 0.08$ tax is wrong, too. Thumbs down.
shop by price pr kilo. and knowing the normal price, is the way to go, everywhere in the world. So never shop in just one shop. go shop in 2-4 different shops, and max once a week. going for discount is the way to go :) shopping by just what I want is very pricy. Never make a dinnerplan by feel. Make weekly dinner plan. by what is on sale.
A lot of chicken meat sold in Denmark is "enhanced". The meat is injected with a salt water and sugar solution. It's supposed to make the meat juicier, but it also means that the meat can be sold at an apparently lower kilo price, even though you actually get less chicken for your money.
Great comparison with surprising result: US prices not necessarily being more expensive than Germany if you shop in the right places. However, one thing I missed, which I found ridiculously overpriced in the US, is toilet paper. Would have been interesting to see if it is like 500% more expensive even at Aldi...
I got back and checked your Rewe-Henhouse comparison... Sorry to say: you made a huge mistake comparing the chicken price from aldi vs henhouse/Rewe ... You compared price per 100g/aldi as calculated in this video with the price for 1kg/Rewe-Henhouse ... Also keep in mind that you took the premium option "Wilhelm Brandenburg" in your Rewe, while there is also an option with the JA! Rewe housebrand, that maches the price at Aldi
She was speaking English, so the pronunciation is acceptable. What gets me is when immigrants ( US, GB, AUS ) trying to speak German insist on English pronunciation of German or international brands. Heck, when I am in the US I use the pronunciation the natives will understand.... ( curtesy aside )
On some of those same items, Aldi and Walmart have similar prices. At Sam's Club there are some better prices on the shelf but one has to factor the cost of membership as part of the pricing too.
We don't have an Aldi or Lidl in our area. I would not go to them anyway as we only eat organic-bio produce. Our bread is Desem. We as Dutch are daily shoppers and require fresh daily produce. We have a bio-butcher in our shopping street and we walk everywhere. Something you are unable to do in the States.
There are mistakes in the price comparison, e.g. comparing the US cents vs EU cents. In one case 1.00 vs 1.18 is 18% and not 14.7%. Also chicken price of $18 per 100gr is quite unusual. Haven’t seen chicken at $180per KG or $75per lbs in US. Definitely the whole conversion is adding complexity in reporting prices and honest mistakes have been made.
I was expecting Ashton to mention in her 'disclaimers' there are two Aldi companies - Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Do they charge the same prices as each other? I imagine her local store in Freiburg is Aldi Sud. Here in the UK I think we have Aldi Nord. Which one is in the US? One thing Aldi and Lidl do to stand out here in the UK, which I didn't notice in either store shown, was that they make a big play of products being British grown or produced. So you have the amusing sight of German supermarkets patriotically plastering the Union Jack all over their products!
Chicken in Rewe was 9,90 EUR /kg and a sale price. You can see it in the video. If you add up this numbers you end up with 7.32 EUR for Rewe and 103.68% Prices are nearly the same in Germany whne yozu take the store brands. You can get 99 cent milk in every store for example. And then you have different items on sale every week, which is for all stores including Aldi.
there was a comparison here on YT where they checked the prices of diffrent store brands (like ja!, gut&günstig etc) and if you only buy the store brand, the prices will be the same. (a pound of pasta is 0,8 € in aldi, rewe, lidl, etc). Due to the fact, that most of the time you also get more weight per package it is way more cheaper than the big brands. (and a lot of the store brands come from the same factory as big brands) There a few items that taste better if you don't buy the cheaper store brand, like pizza or some sort of chips (crisps), or soft drinks/ sodas. But even though I buy mostly store brands, I use every app from every store to save a few extra percentage and I look for things on sale I still have to pay 150€ or more per week for groceries for me and my 2 teenage kids.
Ofcourse you can comparee prices on a one-to-one basis. But the next question is how to compare the quality of the products? How does it taste? What aditived do they contain? and so on. As you mentioned about the bread, in the USA it is spungier than in Germany.. And Chicken in the EU is produced to way higher sanity standards than in the USA.. It can be cheaper, but a salmonella infection isn't any fun either.
In the US they have hormone cattle, which has a higher production of meat and milk than the regular or organic variant. And in the US the are not obligated to mention hormone use on the label, so you don’t know what you buy, but the probability of hormone meat and milk is big. The same can be said about wheat and corn with GMO used for bread. And in US manufactured food items, there are more cheap ingredients to mask the reduced use of original ingredients, like corn syrup. So all in all the US prices of GMO and hormone items should be cheaper than the European regular items.
What is the true cost of animal suffering? This should be added to the monetary cost of our diet. It is common, in the US, to administer hormones and other drugs, banned in most of the developed world, to all types of livestock in order to increase their production levels/weight gain, and - regardless of any side effects which may, or may not, affect the person consuming that product - the side effects on the poor creatures to which they are administered are very often simply horrendous. Ractopamine is a prime example of this. Things are very, _very,_ far from perfect in Europe, EU or non-EU, but in general animal welfare standards for meat, dairy and egg production are higher than in the US. Individual producers in the US may choose to have higher welfare standards than the norm, and sell more 'exclusively'; however, producers in Europe, and in particular the EU, must maintain certain minimum standards of both welfare and hygiene (the two are, of course, often closely linked) _by law_. These are _minimum_ standards and many consumers demand better.
Normally I like the videos very much, but unfortunately there are a lot of mistakes here: - The price of the chicken breast at REWE is completely wrong. The price per kilo was probably used here and not the price per 100 grams. - She has compared German organic products with non-organic products from the USA several times. (for example the yoghurt and the ground beef at ALDI - especially the ground BIO-beef ist much more expensive than beef from "conventional" farming. - The German toast was made from "Dinkel", the American ‘bread’ from wheat. That also makes a price difference. - The milk she bought ‘wrong’ was not organic milk with the appropriate "Bio"-seal. However, she then compared the correct milk. As much as I usually like her videos, there were too many mistakes, the biggest of course being the comparison of the chicken breast at REWE.
I prefer thr Aldi in Belgium over Germany, mainly because the cashier do their job at a reasonable pace. I think Belgians were not cool with the super fast German cashier style, so they just slowed it down a bit. At least that's my experience.
If you keep on shopping at Aldi look out for Trader Joe items, before Aldi build stores they took over Trader Joe, that the reason for not having Aldi in CA.
on that bit at the end: honestly if you can afford it... dont shop at aldi or lidl... they are absolutely horrible employers - those discounts are always paid by someone... you are just making someone else pay it
That depends on the labor laws and worker protection rights of the country, as well as the market situation. Aldi Suisse pays a minimal wage of 4'700 CHF a month, Lidl Schweiz 4'550 CHF, the Swiss discounter Denner 4'400 CHF and the non discounter supermarkets Migros and Coop will pay a minimal wage of 4'200 CHF a month. All gross wages before taxes and social security contributions, and for the year 2024. Aldi Suisse as well as Lidl Schweiz were severly criticised by the media and the public for their low wages at the time they entered the Swiss market. Both companies learned that a negative image because of low wages lead to lower sale numbers, and since Aldi and Lidl want to expand their operations in the well saturated Swiss market, they had to change something.
I have heard of some smaller producers of speciality products in the UK practically fighting to get Aldi or Lidl orders, as they pay their producers promptly and without further haggling over the agreed price, as too often happens with the 'Big Four' (or is it five? I don't know ...) and the Coop. Also the wages they offer compare well with the bigger supermarkets, and they make a point of offering a decent career structure to enthusiastic capable employees who want to do more/go further than 'just' do basic shop work. They seem to be considered good employers in general.
Ironic that the USA still uses "Imperial" measures. Wasn't there a revolution about that? Note: The Inch is a metric measurement according to international standards. It's defined in millimetres in US law.
I'm surprised she called them "Imperial" units, generally only Canadians do that. In the US they generally call them traditional or English units. There are differences between Imperial and US traditional units, for example the Imperial gallon has 5 quarts whereas the US gallon has 4. I think the two tons are also different.
Our Aldi in germany has purple and green colored plastic packets (self standing, like the M&Ms) of ready to heat sauces from their asian store brand. If you see those, try them. They taste amazing.
I always use an US American Quarter in German Aldis. Not sure if they have a different system in the US since I think there can't be that many companies producing "shopping cart money insertion safety locking devices"
Most beautiful English interpretation of German combined nouns I've ever seen. Let me spell that out just for fun and giggles: "Einkaufswagengeldeinschubsicherheitsverschlusssysteme". Hilarious. 😂
Lidl UK sells Weisse Bier at a price that I'm prepared to pay, so I go there. Their Cheddar cheese is garbage however. Shop around. Unless you drive everywhere, in which case, don't!
[Tongue in cheek] CAUTION: IRONY!!! (in case it wasn't clear from the get go) Price for an Aldi shopping cart in America 25 cent (= 0,22€) Price for an Aldi Einkaufswagen in Germany 1 € (= $1,12) So Aldi America is 4.5x cheaper than Aldi Germany. Case closed within the first two minutes. ;-P [\Tongue in cheek]
Then we just take the shopping cart on vacation in the US 😜 But hardly anyone in Germany spends money on this; most people have plastic chips or a universal opener on their key ring
19:00 thats probably because you bought Dinkel bread at the Aldi in Germany. I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but the Whole Wheat option was significantly cheaper
I think the biggest difference is the quality of the food. I’m American who lived in Germany for 15 years. Foods like milk, eggs, breads, and vegetables tend to be much higher quality in the EU. But when it comes to processed foods, the American versions seems to be of higher quality. Maybe that’s because they sell better over here. No idea. I would love to know how Aldi compares to Penny Markt in Germany. That was our favorite place to shop as Alsi was more upscale and expensive at that time.
Unfortunately, she calculated the price incorrectly: The beef (minced meat) in Aldi was organic meat, which is significantly more expensive. And when it came to the price of the chicken, she compared the price per kilo instead of the price per 100 grams.
An advantage Germany has is that if you live close to the split you might have access to both Aldi Sud and Aldi Nord. My autistic brain had a problem with the screaming man, so I skipped to the end of the milk section and only got the conclusion. But I did get the final comparison.
As interesting as these price comparison videos are (Even Edinger has done a couple great ones for he US and UK), they are ultimately meaningless because we simply cannot account for all the relevant variables. One thing that is missing (but very difficult to really get) would be an indication of a given person's income in both places because an egg be 4 cents more expensive could either be a small difference or a pretty meaningful difference if they are in a place with relatively higher or lower income (and this the egg being a lower or higher proportion of their earnings). But of course the big one is the on e we all know: you buy groceries where you are, not the other side of a ocean. As someone who has moved overseas, I can say you very quickly get out of the habit of converting the prices of things because does it really matter if that coffee would have been 10 cents cheaper 'back home' when you are not back home? You ultimately have to work in the local currency, especially if you are being paid in that currency and do not have significant assets/liabilities in the other place, and get to the point where you are roughly thinking in terms of is this a lot or a little of my take home pay (which is really how we should always be thinking).
Yes, as someone who has lived and worked in many different countries throughout the world, this is very true. When I lived in tropical climates, I relished being able to gorge on fresh ripe mangoes, and it entertained me mildly to think that such an 'expensive' fruit would plop down into my garden from my neighbour's trees - just like victoria plums did in the UK! - but I didn't try to compare prices of 'staple' foods as staples simply aren't the same from one part of a country to another, let alone from one continent to another. I just altered my diet and cooking styles somewhat, and occasionally treated myself to something familiar.
Aston, an open question about US. In Germay prices of non industrial food as fruits, vegetables and partly meat vary over time. Do you see that in the US also?
Fresh fruits and veggies are a tough comparison when looking at Germany vs. USA. You're dealing with which items are local to not only each country, but regions. Plus seasonality is also an issue.
@@TypeAshton If you bought a range of fresh fruits and vegetables , some of which were in season and locally-grown, some of which were easily and cheaply storable/shippable, and some of which were highly perishable and had by neccesity to be shipped from far away, that would be interesting. In fact a truly international comparison of this could easily be done (in Europe at least) as prepacked fresh produce in supermarkets is labelled with its place of origin ... Comparing prices of fresh fruits and veggies with open/street market stalls would also be interesting.
The ‘Landmilch’ that you bought in the German Aldi supermarket is not labelled as organic. It is only the green pack :-), but has no organic label. Organic milk is even more expensive in Aldi. However, it is more expensive than the cheapest Aldi milk - but then you have compared correctly.
which is understandable - factory farming is much cheaper to do... we just end up paying that up front reduction in cost in worse health outcomes (antibiotic resistant bacteria) and worsening climate outcomes (factory farming produces significantly more greenhouse gases)... and we probably pay much more in those consequences than the up front savings...
@@SharienGaming completely agree. I should have written simply: Non organic ground beef probably costs only a third of what Ashton paid for her organic package in Germany. And then the US would have been on the more expensive side. And no, cheaply priced and/or produced meat isn’t a good thing.
I think if you bought only the discount house brands at the compared store (e.g. the "ja!"-branded products at Rewe or "gut & günstig" at Edeka) you would probably have a very similar total sum and comparable product quality like at Aldi
Aldi also offers imported goods from Europe in the USA. However, this is also associated with costs, and these are likely to be slightly more expensive on sale than here in Germany. Now just my question and the thought I've always had, American foods are very contaminated with chemicals and other harmful ingredients, has Aldi now refused to sell them or what is Aldi doing in the USA. It is well known that goods are produced especially for Aldi in different packaging by well-known manufacturers, they have their own list of ingredients which prohibits these additives.
Well the "Hausmarken" house brands of the grocery stores in Germany usually cost the same. So the discounters ALDI and LIDL with their house brands, dropped the pricesin the past, so REWE and EDEKA (some years ago also real,-) made their own house brands, and they usually have the same price, despite a sales offer. But at ALDI you had only a small offer of other brands, what you have a lot a t EDEKA, REWE etc.. What is the comparison between Trader Joe's and ALDI, as Trader Joe's belongs to ALDI North while the ALDI (in the USA) belong to ALDI South.
Aldi has abandoned Denmark. Aldi (Nord) opened the first discount store in Denmark in 1977, introducing the discount concept in the country.. In 2022 they pulled out and sold their stores to another chain (REMA 1000, based in Norway) Aldi always struggled to gain a foothold in the Danish market. They had difficulty adapting their model to the habits of Danish consumers. For example, Danes want fresh, refrigerated milk. UHT milk has a long shelf life and doesn't need to be refrigerated, and is therefore cheaper. But even the most price-conscious buyers didn't care for that. Eggs are another example. Eggs in Europe are sold unwashed, which means they have a long shelf life (the washing process removes the protective layer in the eggshell) and they CAN be stored just fine at room temperature. But danish consumers want their eggs from a refrigerator gosh darnit &%&%¤%¤#%&¤! That's how we store the eggs at home.
In Germany, with eggs as unwashed as can be (yep, chicken poop smell and all), it never ever even occurred to me to NOT store eggs in the fridge (although they are stored on unrefrigerated shelfs in the store). I mean, frigdes are even sold with these little egg shelf thingies by default, always have been.
The price of groceries is actually a minor point if you compare it with what people (often very happily, or at least without need) pay for big houses or big cars. Average new car price in Germany is 42K. Insane! The capital income alone from this buying price alone (don't forget about fuel insurance etc) if invested is more than a grocery budget for a person. Many people claim to have a lack of money, when it's really just a lack of restraint on luxury.
Of course Mississippi and Alabama tax groceries at full rate. Because of course they do. Illinois is the bit of the head scratcher there. Needs to come off.
Whoever came up with a sales tax of 1.225% must have been a math teacher before that hates the student's incompetence so much they decided to go legislator and make them do math the really hard way. 😵💫
So American groceries are not more expensive? Those people posting about half a shopping cart full of groceries costing $200 in the US which would only cost about €50 in Germany were just lying? Shocking.
Nope.It's about 40% more expensive in The US for fruits and vegetables except fir few Things like bananas,Avocados,Nuts but for meat,Poultry,Eggs,Milks there aren’t any significant difference
No way you triple checked chicken prices because as an avid chicken eater, I've never seen, at any grocery store, any type of chicken or poultry meat that costs even half of what you just said, in the last 15 years.
I would say the main question is what is the minimum wage, unemployment benefits and other social transfers. This in the end determines what is justified and "morally" acceptable
So I think you made some mistakes when choosing the products (I'm just trow in fancy Dinkel Toast vs. regular US sandwich weat bread) - but that happens. But you obviously made the biggest mistake in the price information with REWE chicken. You're will not seriously saying that chicken breast costs €100 per kilo? But you could really have noticed that yourself. I assume that the price of €9.90 that you noted is not the 100gram price but the price per kilogram. By the way, at REWE 10 own brand eggs cost €1.99 and at ALDI, according to your video, they cost €2.29. It should be said that I have never seen them sold out at REWE. But in the end I think it's good that you put this effort into your video.
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regarding beef: you bought Bio in Germany. Bio is vastly more expensive. So the higher price not surprising at all.
Also the calculation for the US beef is way off. $7.74 for 1.13 lb (512g) should result in $1.51 per 100g and not $0.73 per 100g as in the video.
There are differences in eggs in Germany.
1) Industrial farming in boxes
2) Barn farming (Bodenhaltung)
3) Free range farming (Freilandhaltung)
4) Organic in combination with 2) or 3) (Bio)
5) Farm eggs, chicken breed that doesn't lay an egg every day, so large eggs (Bauerhof Eier)
The higher the number, the higher the price. The price does not necessarily refer to the quality, but also to the way the animals are kept.
Thank you for the compilation. I would just like to mention that 4. ‘organic’ (Bio) is not comparable with 2. and 3. and there is no combination: ‘Organic’ also always means more free-range area for the chickens. An ‘organic’ label would not even be possible with barn farming (2).
A note on the first category: Due to animal cruelty concerns, this kind of egg farming will be forbidden in Germany by the end of 2025. Right now it is already only allowed as so called "Kleingruppenhaltung" (small group husbandry) in which the chickens get more space and are kept in larger groups of 40 - 60 animals per box.
@@mille_fiori There's no category for it but arguably organic barn eggs should be a thing: Chicken don't actually dislike barns, they feel safe and secure there and there's health advantages to barn raising because the birds aren't exposed to random pathogens. To make the whole thing organic, I'd say a) have only organic food and b) require them to be able to hunt earthworms, instead of just picking up grains from the floor.
That price for chicken at rewe cannot be for 100g, no one could afford chicken. Must be for 1kg
I don't think so, I bought one chicken breast at the teke. I think it was 1,49 and didn't think much about it. And at checkout I saw it was 5 eur! For 1 chicken breast.
Still have the receipt. 5.05 eur for 0.282 kg. the date 09.09.2024
Yes, I just looked into the video, it was 9,90 per kg.
So with 99 cent per 100g was it neartly the same and it was on sale.
Oh, right I saw it. She put kg price.
I think the price was 1.79 or 17.90 per kilo in rewe. She must have had an Angebot
@@ivanamihaart
She paid 4.84 EUR for 0.489 kg and the price tag on the shelf was yellow, so sale price.
ruclips.net/video/QY1mtNCF19g/видео.html
@@ivanamihaart A chicken breast is 200 - 300 grams and usually at the teke its more pricey.
The real sponsor of this episode is:.... ALDI. A very insightful and perfectly prepared presentation of products from this store. I have not seen better publicity. Thanks to you, I am changing my grocery store to... ALDI.
I think for eggs and meat, one needs to also compare across farming types. Free range and bio is more than battery hens and mass produced beef and pork where the animals have a low quality of life. In Europe I feel the norm leans towards free range and bio.
And there is more range in America
Same for bananas. The Aldi Germany ones were Rain Forrest Alliance ones and the USA ones were Del Monte.
I would never lower my standards to American levels. I know where my fruit and veg come from and I am willing to pay for it.
The main reason bananas in the US are cheaper than in Germany is because of shipping costs. Shipping from Columbia or Ecuador to the US is way faster and cheaper than to Germany. Hence the price difference.
While seemingly logical, it can't explain all of the difference as bananas are cheaper in the Netherlands (right next door) than in Germany (and Belgium for that matter).
sorry, but my inner "klugscheißer" kicks in and dinkel is spelt in english a variety of wheat that is more expensive than the regular wheat. so the bread comparison is not that accurate.
As some people may rant about EU regulations, the best was the general rule that prices to end customers have to be includes all taxes
Is that an EU regulation or was it something that was already common. I was in Serbia and they also included the taxes in the price.
that's not EU regulation. US (guess) is the only country in the world that does it differently.
It is an EU-regulation:
"Throughout the EU, sellers must indicate product prices clearly enough for you to easily compare similar products and make informed choices - no matter how they're packaged or how many units are sold together.
Companies are legally obliged to be completely clear about the price you'll have to pay when they advertise or sell something to you.
Complete price information
The price quoted in an offer must include all taxes and delivery charges. If there might be extra costs that can't be calculated in advance, you must also be told about that upfront."
@@Neuraloverlordsit was common practice and law in all or at least most countries
@@leeman1525 In Germany it was law since VAT has been introduced in 1968.
The egg comparison does have more layers in behalf of costs actually when you go into the needy greedy detail..
US eggs are produced by battery farming therefore need to be chlorified and then fridged in order to be a save product..while due to battery farming you´ll get a way higher margin of eggs per square meter of the facility = which makes eggs way cheaper due to the way higher number of eggs which are produced in way less space and then brought into the market (= economic outcome of supply + demand) but due to the additional needed process of chlorifying + fridging that then also adds more costs before they can be sold to the customer
European eggs are not battery farmed due to the EU animal protection law = way lower margin of eggs are produced per square meter of the facilty therefore due to supply + demand those are more expensive but there are then no further costs because those don´t need to be chlorified + don´t need to be fridged before they can be sold to the customer
A similar thing is to say about beef...in the US it is allowed to use hormons for growth and even cloning cows but in the EU don´t = So US cows deliver more meat + more milk per cow in comparision to cows in the EU which has of course an impact to the selling price....despite the question of the impact of people´s health which would open an other "can of worms" so to say.
Those chicken prices.... aren't they per kilogram price? I cannot imagin any place selling chicken for €99 per kilogram!
Hi Ashton, that was great, thanks. I am from Munich, but I live on Maui, HI, and I love to visit my homeland, Oberbayern, once a year for a month, usually in July. Anyway, the price you quoted for Aldi USA is around 2.5 times as much here on Maui. No Aldi here, so Costco is my life saver. When I go to Aldi in the small Bavarian town, where I stay with friends, I get 'Kaufrausch'. Meaning, I get euphoric, because I can fill my cart with pretty much everything my heart desires, including booze, tasty tomatoes and walk out happily with a EUR 50 invoice, scratching my head how everything can be so ridiculously cheap. The only times I stray from Aldi, and go to Edeka or Lidl, is when they have Ritter Sport Nougat on sale for 59c, or 79c last July, then I raid the shelves to the horrified look of the cashier, as they don't have limits on sale items in Germany. And that's all I have in my checked luggage, around 30 pounds of chocolate, roughly a year's supply😂 . And I will never ever stop over in Phoenix in 114 F again, because I ended up with a lot of 'mousse au chocolate' last July. 😋
I feel your pain😂
@@Lysandra-8 Already booked my next year's trip via Anchorage, Alaska. But who knows, maybe at the speed momma Earth is heating up, it will be 114 up there by next year. 🥵
It is always funny to me that Americans who are angry at angry for asking for a 25¢ deposit don't know about the plastic chips you can use instead. I barely put real money in the shopping cart here in Germany. 😅
I must admit, first time shopping groceries in the US I was not impressed with the quality I saw in The stores.
Even though you checked the numbers 3 times, the price of chicken breasts at Hen House must be off by 10 times. 16,34 Euros per 100 grams is 163,40 per kilo, that must be wrong.
Leaving a quarter is one of the little things that can make the day a little better. It is petty by definition, but petty things can build up to affect your whole day. I love doing that petty little anonymous act of random kindness and it helps me even more than whoever gets to use the cart next.
Pro tip for carts: it doesn´t have to be a coin. Anything that has right thickness and radius works. Like rounded key heads etc. I used a whittled wooden chip attached to my keychain for a while, but it broke at some point. Luckily I found an actual keychain that comes with a detachable circular piece meant for shopping carts sometime later and I have been using that ever since.
@@vanasaabas I will grant the keychain solution is an interesting solution for yourself, but I was talking about a random act of kindness - not how to beat the system.
It is important to note that the products you bought are produced in a different way in the USA an Europe. That makes it very difficult to make a fair comparison. Have a look a the project "Food for thought" by Kadir van Lohuizen (book, docu series and exposition) to see where your food comes form
Ashton, just one small detail on your tables and overall price display throughout the video for readability.
Please, use in a column on the left and the right side the same currency as this mixture ($ (€) | € ($)) makes it hard to read. So, something like in a same column (€($) | €($)). Otherwise, use of colors for readability was good.
yes
Wait. WAIT. American toast bread is even softer and spongier than European toast bread?! WHAT?! How do you spread butter on it?!
You don't... you use mayonnaise!
😄 Exactly my thought. How is it even possible to be softer than toastbread?????
Probably because they use Peanut Butter. Yikes. 😂
Spongier doesn't means softer but not outright more porous/dry. I remember having no problems spreading jam, peanut butter, etc on "Toast" in the US. Nevertheless it tasted way different and I still remember all the additives on the package.
@@alexandergutfeldt1144
But how can you have your Butterbrot without Butter?
The US does not use imperial units but US units. In most cases it makes little difference, but a US gallon equals 3.785411784 litres and an imperial gallon equals 4.54609 litres.
Wenn man bei Rewe die teuerste Milch nimmt, ist der Unterschied natürlich so hoch. Die Hausmarke ist überall ähnlich günstig und weicht, wenn überhaupt, nur um ein paar Cent ab. Daher hinkt der Vergleich.
Das hat sie doch am Anfang und mittendrin immer wieder selbst gesagt?
@@jonasbartels1716 Ja aber wenn man seriös vergleichen will und darüber ein Video macht, muss man auch gleichwertig vergleichen.
@@bn1435 If you want to point out and be a smartass about something, doing it about something that is already pointed out twice in the video doesn't really make you look particularly clever.
Sometimes a dairy product in Germany is actually from the same manufacturer for cheap and brand option. They have this oval label ("Identitätskennzeichen", like: DE BY 12345 EG) that shows the producer, that way you can tell if it's the same. Edit: That could be a reason why there is no difference for Rewe and Aldi for Yoghurt.
The establishment of several "banana republics" in central amerca made the big price difference! ;-) Very detailed and professional ! Thank you. Have a nice sunday.
I was so scared seeing the you reach into the almost empty box of bananas. I worked at a German supermarket and funnily enough a friend of mine worked on a banana field in Vietnam during his work and travel right after school.
He noticed that there are tons spiders and insects on the bananas (back in 2006) and even the bath wasn't guaranteed to get rid of them. Also some bananas grew directly in plastic bags carrying spiders in them.
I had two encounter in the fruit section stacking up banana boxes seeing a spider.
A customer also once reported a spider but I wasn't the person working in the fruit section anymore so I couldn't verify.
I have the irrational fear of finding a spider amongst those bananas even though they most likely won't bite and I'm not scared of spiders anywhere else.
Amazing video as always Ashton! Been there since the very start of the channel and it is always a pleasure seeing someone with a similar degree not being lazy and doing all the work necessary to find the best common demoninator to compare everything fairly.
Romania, here. My favorite german brand : Kaufland. ❤
Should we mention the differences in quality between the US and EU versions? In the 15 European countries we visited, groceries were consistently cheaper than in the US and also much better in quality: more sustainably produced, far more likely to be locally sourced, less packaging, and better tasting. We got used to the smaller portions because the meals were more satisfying.
You can buy organic foods in The US.Prices are almost The Same
Costco Prices are cheaper then Most european countries
Aldi Süd = Aldi in the US. Trader Joe's = Aldi Nord.
And, as far as I know, in Germany, Aldi is a really good employer and employees get fairly high wages and all the etcetera.
In the US, it appears to be ok., but not as great as in Germany.
I'm not sure about teir position regarding trade unions or works councils (which is mandatory in Germany if the market or whatever business had more than a certain number of employees).
I am also not sure about the nature of the contracts Aldi has with the producers. I think it has to do with these contracts that Aldi can offer such good quality at affordable prices.
The yoghurt prices in Germany are no surprise at all. Those small yoghurt portions have a very specific job in the german grocery shops: to pull in customers. As a result they are sold at absolute cut throat prices. Even upmarket shops like REWE are forced to sell them at 0% profit or even at a loss, to compete with the Aldi-prices. It seems Aldi-Süd tries to get the same system going in the USA. In general the overall profit margin for grocery products in discounters is incredible low in Germany, somewhere between 2-4%. Which is almost impossible to compete with in the american market.
Rewe likes to pricematch the discounter stores when it comes to their home brand "ja!"
Nice comparison. So much work.
But it makes a lot of sense, beef is always way cheaper in the U.S., pork on the other hand is way more expensive than in Germany.
One thing, though. The chicken breast in your comparison with Hen House and Rewe, there is no way, that you pay $81/pound at Hen House or €99/kg at Rewe.
The ground meat was cheaper in Germany, the comparison was miscalculated.
The beef was bio ("organic") ... it's obviously more expensive.
The yogurt surprised me, it was also bio, but not actually more expensive!
@@snygg1993 No, it is cheaper in Germany than in the US. - 7.74$ for 1.13lbs converts to 1.51$ per 100 g, not 0.73$ per 100 g as claimed at 14:31 .
This video is full of sloppy mistakes, look at the "Receipt" at 14:19 the 0.08$ tax is wrong, too. Thumbs down.
20:20 looks you’re comparing a 100g @aldi price to a 1000g (1kg) price.
I'm going to freiburg for vacation on Monday. I'm so excited!
Hi Ashton, my personal recommendation on Aldi products are marinated shrimps, goat cheese with pepper, deep frozen spring rolls.
shop by price pr kilo.
and knowing the normal price, is the way to go, everywhere in the world.
So never shop in just one shop.
go shop in 2-4 different shops, and max once a week.
going for discount is the way to go :)
shopping by just what I want is very pricy.
Never make a dinnerplan by feel. Make weekly dinner plan. by what is on sale.
A lot of chicken meat sold in Denmark is "enhanced". The meat is injected with a salt water and sugar solution.
It's supposed to make the meat juicier, but it also means that the meat can be sold at an apparently lower kilo price, even though you actually get less chicken for your money.
Great comparison with surprising result: US prices not necessarily being more expensive than Germany if you shop in the right places. However, one thing I missed, which I found ridiculously overpriced in the US, is toilet paper. Would have been interesting to see if it is like 500% more expensive even at Aldi...
Regarding the chicken they inject (literally) it with water (after the chicken is slaughtered luckilly…
Not only Aldi.. The biggest Retailer AH does it also 😮😢. Personally, I think every supermarket does it unfortunately.
I got back and checked your Rewe-Henhouse comparison...
Sorry to say: you made a huge mistake comparing the chicken price from aldi vs henhouse/Rewe ...
You compared price per 100g/aldi as calculated in this video with the price for 1kg/Rewe-Henhouse ...
Also keep in mind that you took the premium option "Wilhelm Brandenburg" in your Rewe, while there is also an option with the JA! Rewe housebrand, that maches the price at Aldi
It would have been great to hear you pronounce Aldi as it is pronounced in each country to differentiate between them.
She was speaking English, so the pronunciation is acceptable.
What gets me is when immigrants ( US, GB, AUS ) trying to speak German insist on English pronunciation of German or international brands.
Heck, when I am in the US I use the pronunciation the natives will understand.... ( curtesy aside )
What About What About fruit and vegetables?You Only counted bananas.
It seems surprising that the Rewe alternative in the US is so much more expensive compared to Aldi.
On some of those same items, Aldi and Walmart have similar prices. At Sam's Club there are some better prices on the shelf but one has to factor the cost of membership as part of the pricing too.
If I have to buy toast, I prefer "Harry" over "Golden Toast". They don't use preservative agents.
As far as I can remember preservative agents ( other than salt) are illegal in Germany!
@@alexandergutfeldt1144 not all preservatives are illegal
We don't have an Aldi or Lidl in our area. I would not go to them anyway as we only eat organic-bio produce. Our bread is Desem. We as Dutch are daily shoppers and require fresh daily produce. We have a bio-butcher in our shopping street and we walk everywhere. Something you are unable to do in the States.
There are mistakes in the price comparison, e.g. comparing the US cents vs EU cents. In one case 1.00 vs 1.18 is 18% and not 14.7%.
Also chicken price of $18 per 100gr is quite unusual. Haven’t seen chicken at $180per KG or $75per lbs in US. Definitely the whole conversion is adding complexity in reporting prices and honest mistakes have been made.
I was expecting Ashton to mention in her 'disclaimers' there are two Aldi companies - Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Do they charge the same prices as each other? I imagine her local store in Freiburg is Aldi Sud. Here in the UK I think we have Aldi Nord. Which one is in the US?
One thing Aldi and Lidl do to stand out here in the UK, which I didn't notice in either store shown, was that they make a big play of products being British grown or produced. So you have the amusing sight of German supermarkets patriotically plastering the Union Jack all over their products!
Chicken in Rewe was 9,90 EUR /kg and a sale price.
You can see it in the video.
If you add up this numbers you end up with 7.32 EUR for Rewe and 103.68%
Prices are nearly the same in Germany whne yozu take the store brands.
You can get 99 cent milk in every store for example.
And then you have different items on sale every week, which is for all stores including Aldi.
Always prefer an analytic explanation from TA over AI, have a Great Sunday
there was a comparison here on YT where they checked the prices of diffrent store brands (like ja!, gut&günstig etc) and if you only buy the store brand, the prices will be the same. (a pound of pasta is 0,8 € in aldi, rewe, lidl, etc). Due to the fact, that most of the time you also get more weight per package it is way more cheaper than the big brands. (and a lot of the store brands come from the same factory as big brands) There a few items that taste better if you don't buy the cheaper store brand, like pizza or some sort of chips (crisps), or soft drinks/ sodas. But even though I buy mostly store brands, I use every app from every store to save a few extra percentage and I look for things on sale I still have to pay 150€ or more per week for groceries for me and my 2 teenage kids.
Ofcourse you can comparee prices on a one-to-one basis. But the next question is how to compare the quality of the products? How does it taste? What aditived do they contain? and so on.
As you mentioned about the bread, in the USA it is spungier than in Germany.. And Chicken in the EU is produced to way higher sanity standards than in the USA.. It can be cheaper, but a salmonella infection isn't any fun either.
In the US they have hormone cattle, which has a higher production of meat and milk than the regular or organic variant. And in the US the are not obligated to mention hormone use on the label, so you don’t know what you buy, but the probability of hormone meat and milk is big. The same can be said about wheat and corn with GMO used for bread. And in US manufactured food items, there are more cheap ingredients to mask the reduced use of original ingredients, like corn syrup. So all in all the US prices of GMO and hormone items should be cheaper than the European regular items.
What is the true cost of animal suffering? This should be added to the monetary cost of our diet.
It is common, in the US, to administer hormones and other drugs, banned in most of the developed world, to all types of livestock in order to increase their production levels/weight gain, and - regardless of any side effects which may, or may not, affect the person consuming that product - the side effects on the poor creatures to which they are administered are very often simply horrendous. Ractopamine is a prime example of this.
Things are very, _very,_ far from perfect in Europe, EU or non-EU, but in general animal welfare standards for meat, dairy and egg production are higher than in the US. Individual producers in the US may choose to have higher welfare standards than the norm, and sell more 'exclusively'; however, producers in Europe, and in particular the EU, must maintain certain minimum standards of both welfare and hygiene (the two are, of course, often closely linked) _by law_. These are _minimum_ standards and many consumers demand better.
In the chicken row you very likely compared 100g to 1kg. Of course 100g of chicken doesnt cost 16 nor 10 euros!
Normally I like the videos very much, but unfortunately there are a lot of mistakes here:
- The price of the chicken breast at REWE is completely wrong. The price per kilo was probably used here and not the price per 100 grams.
- She has compared German organic products with non-organic products from the USA several times. (for example the yoghurt and the ground beef at ALDI - especially the ground BIO-beef ist much more expensive than beef from "conventional" farming.
- The German toast was made from "Dinkel", the American ‘bread’ from wheat. That also makes a price difference.
- The milk she bought ‘wrong’ was not organic milk with the appropriate "Bio"-seal. However, she then compared the correct milk.
As much as I usually like her videos, there were too many mistakes, the biggest of course being the comparison of the chicken breast at REWE.
In Lake Ozark.....I had to laugh. It reminded my of the "Ozark" TV series.
Always entertaining and interesting, your videos Ashton! Have a great Sunday everyone!
Egg Prices in The US increased 28% year Over year for a virus I forgot The name.The prices will come Down eventually
I prefer thr Aldi in Belgium over Germany, mainly because the cashier do their job at a reasonable pace. I think Belgians were not cool with the super fast German cashier style, so they just slowed it down a bit. At least that's my experience.
Buy the cheapest item in each country and you end up with 6.32 euro for US vs 6.31 euro for Germany.
If you keep on shopping at Aldi look out for Trader Joe items, before Aldi build stores they took over Trader Joe, that the reason for not having Aldi in CA.
Wrong - ALDI in the US is ALDI Süd, Trader Joe's is owned by the ALDI Nord family branch.
on that bit at the end: honestly if you can afford it... dont shop at aldi or lidl... they are absolutely horrible employers - those discounts are always paid by someone... you are just making someone else pay it
That depends on the labor laws and worker protection rights of the country, as well as the market situation. Aldi Suisse pays a minimal wage of 4'700 CHF a month, Lidl Schweiz 4'550 CHF, the Swiss discounter Denner 4'400 CHF and the non discounter supermarkets Migros and Coop will pay a minimal wage of 4'200 CHF a month. All gross wages before taxes and social security contributions, and for the year 2024.
Aldi Suisse as well as Lidl Schweiz were severly criticised by the media and the public for their low wages at the time they entered the Swiss market. Both companies learned that a negative image because of low wages lead to lower sale numbers, and since Aldi and Lidl want to expand their operations in the well saturated Swiss market, they had to change something.
I have heard of some smaller producers of speciality products in the UK practically fighting to get Aldi or Lidl orders, as they pay their producers promptly and without further haggling over the agreed price, as too often happens with the 'Big Four' (or is it five? I don't know ...) and the Coop.
Also the wages they offer compare well with the bigger supermarkets, and they make a point of offering a decent career structure to enthusiastic capable employees who want to do more/go further than 'just' do basic shop work. They seem to be considered good employers in general.
Ironic that the USA still uses "Imperial" measures. Wasn't there a revolution about that? Note: The Inch is a metric measurement according to international standards. It's defined in millimetres in US law.
I'm surprised she called them "Imperial" units, generally only Canadians do that. In the US they generally call them traditional or English units. There are differences between Imperial and US traditional units, for example the Imperial gallon has 5 quarts whereas the US gallon has 4. I think the two tons are also different.
Our Aldi in germany has purple and green colored plastic packets (self standing, like the M&Ms) of ready to heat sauces from their asian store brand. If you see those, try them. They taste amazing.
I always use an US American Quarter in German Aldis. Not sure if they have a different system in the US since I think there can't be that many companies producing "shopping cart money insertion safety locking devices"
Most beautiful English interpretation of German combined nouns I've ever seen. Let me spell that out just for fun and giggles: "Einkaufswagengeldeinschubsicherheitsverschlusssysteme". Hilarious. 😂
Lidl UK sells Weisse Bier at a price that I'm prepared to pay, so I go there. Their Cheddar cheese is garbage however. Shop around. Unless you drive everywhere, in which case, don't!
[Tongue in cheek] CAUTION: IRONY!!! (in case it wasn't clear from the get go)
Price for an Aldi shopping cart in America 25 cent (= 0,22€)
Price for an Aldi Einkaufswagen in Germany 1 € (= $1,12)
So Aldi America is 4.5x cheaper than Aldi Germany. Case closed within the first two minutes. ;-P [\Tongue in cheek]
Then we just take the shopping cart on vacation in the US 😜
But hardly anyone in Germany spends money on this; most people have plastic chips or a universal opener on their key ring
actually 50 cent work on German aldi shopping carts
Ashton, I would take another look at the numbers. I think some mistakes have been made.
19:00 thats probably because you bought Dinkel bread at the Aldi in Germany. I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but the Whole Wheat option was significantly cheaper
I think the biggest difference is the quality of the food. I’m American who lived in Germany for 15 years. Foods like milk, eggs, breads, and vegetables tend to be much higher quality in the EU. But when it comes to processed foods, the American versions seems to be of higher quality. Maybe that’s because they sell better over here. No idea. I would love to know how Aldi compares to Penny Markt in Germany. That was our favorite place to shop as Alsi was more upscale and expensive at that time.
As always, great video. However, the beef and chicken prices from 9 months ago might differ quite a bit, thus the huge markups.
Unfortunately, she calculated the price incorrectly: The beef (minced meat) in Aldi was organic meat, which is significantly more expensive. And when it came to the price of the chicken, she compared the price per kilo instead of the price per 100 grams.
An advantage Germany has is that if you live close to the split you might have access to both Aldi Sud and Aldi Nord.
My autistic brain had a problem with the screaming man, so I skipped to the end of the milk section and only got the conclusion. But I did get the final comparison.
As interesting as these price comparison videos are (Even Edinger has done a couple great ones for he US and UK), they are ultimately meaningless because we simply cannot account for all the relevant variables. One thing that is missing (but very difficult to really get) would be an indication of a given person's income in both places because an egg be 4 cents more expensive could either be a small difference or a pretty meaningful difference if they are in a place with relatively higher or lower income (and this the egg being a lower or higher proportion of their earnings). But of course the big one is the on e we all know: you buy groceries where you are, not the other side of a ocean. As someone who has moved overseas, I can say you very quickly get out of the habit of converting the prices of things because does it really matter if that coffee would have been 10 cents cheaper 'back home' when you are not back home? You ultimately have to work in the local currency, especially if you are being paid in that currency and do not have significant assets/liabilities in the other place, and get to the point where you are roughly thinking in terms of is this a lot or a little of my take home pay (which is really how we should always be thinking).
Yes, as someone who has lived and worked in many different countries throughout the world, this is very true.
When I lived in tropical climates, I relished being able to gorge on fresh ripe mangoes, and it entertained me mildly to think that such an 'expensive' fruit would plop down into my garden from my neighbour's trees - just like victoria plums did in the UK! - but I didn't try to compare prices of 'staple' foods as staples simply aren't the same from one part of a country to another, let alone from one continent to another. I just altered my diet and cooking styles somewhat, and occasionally treated myself to something familiar.
Aston, an open question about US. In Germay prices of non industrial food as fruits, vegetables and partly meat vary over time. Do you see that in the US also?
Weird comparison. You had pretty much no fresh fruit and veg in you basket, all of which is MUCH cheaper back home (Germany)
Fresh fruits and veggies are a tough comparison when looking at Germany vs. USA. You're dealing with which items are local to not only each country, but regions. Plus seasonality is also an issue.
@@TypeAshton
If you bought a range of fresh fruits and vegetables , some of which were in season and locally-grown, some of which were easily and cheaply storable/shippable, and some of which were highly perishable and had by neccesity to be shipped from far away, that would be interesting.
In fact a truly international comparison of this could easily be done (in Europe at least) as prepacked fresh produce in supermarkets is labelled with its place of origin ... Comparing prices of fresh fruits and veggies with open/street market stalls would also be interesting.
The ‘Landmilch’ that you bought in the German Aldi supermarket is not labelled as organic. It is only the green pack :-), but has no organic label. Organic milk is even more expensive in Aldi. However, it is more expensive than the cheapest Aldi milk - but then you have compared correctly.
Organic meat is erfahrungsgemäß about thrice as expensive as conventional meat in Germany.
which is understandable - factory farming is much cheaper to do... we just end up paying that up front reduction in cost in worse health outcomes (antibiotic resistant bacteria) and worsening climate outcomes (factory farming produces significantly more greenhouse gases)... and we probably pay much more in those consequences than the up front savings...
@@SharienGaming completely agree.
I should have written simply: Non organic ground beef probably costs only a third of what Ashton paid for her organic package in Germany. And then the US would have been on the more expensive side.
And no, cheaply priced and/or produced meat isn’t a good thing.
@@winterlinde5395She also brought Organic American meat
@@Hasanaljadidreally? The ground beef? I didn’t catch that.
I think if you bought only the discount house brands at the compared store (e.g. the "ja!"-branded products at Rewe or "gut & günstig" at Edeka) you would probably have a very similar total sum and comparable product quality like at Aldi
Aldi also offers imported goods from Europe in the USA. However, this is also associated with costs, and these are likely to be slightly more expensive on sale than here in Germany. Now just my question and the thought I've always had, American foods are very contaminated with chemicals and other harmful ingredients, has Aldi now refused to sell them or what is Aldi doing in the USA. It is well known that goods are produced especially for Aldi in different packaging by well-known manufacturers, they have their own list of ingredients which prohibits these additives.
Most Americans buy organic foods
@@Hasanaljadidonly if they can afford it.
Hi Ashton, a great video, with much information! What would be the price difference between Aldi and Lidl (USA vs BRD)
I would love to see a comparison of ingredients of the same items in the US and Germany.
Don‘t call Toast Bread ! That’s an Insult !!
Well the "Hausmarken" house brands of the grocery stores in Germany usually cost the same.
So the discounters ALDI and LIDL with their house brands, dropped the pricesin the past, so REWE and EDEKA (some years ago also real,-) made their own house brands, and they usually have the same price, despite a sales offer.
But at ALDI you had only a small offer of other brands, what you have a lot a t EDEKA, REWE etc..
What is the comparison between Trader Joe's and ALDI, as Trader Joe's belongs to ALDI North while the ALDI (in the USA) belong to ALDI South.
Aldi has abandoned Denmark.
Aldi (Nord) opened the first discount store in Denmark in 1977, introducing the discount concept in the country..
In 2022 they pulled out and sold their stores to another chain (REMA 1000, based in Norway)
Aldi always struggled to gain a foothold in the Danish market. They had difficulty adapting their model to the habits of Danish consumers. For example, Danes want fresh, refrigerated milk. UHT milk has a long shelf life and doesn't need to be refrigerated, and is therefore cheaper. But even the most price-conscious buyers didn't care for that.
Eggs are another example. Eggs in Europe are sold unwashed, which means they have a long shelf life (the washing process removes the protective layer in the eggshell) and they CAN be stored just fine at room temperature. But danish consumers want their eggs from a refrigerator gosh darnit &%&%¤%¤#%&¤! That's how we store the eggs at home.
In Germany, with eggs as unwashed as can be (yep, chicken poop smell and all), it never ever even occurred to me to NOT store eggs in the fridge (although they are stored on unrefrigerated shelfs in the store). I mean, frigdes are even sold with these little egg shelf thingies by default, always have been.
45 years doesnt seem like an absolute failure
The price of groceries is actually a minor point if you compare it with what people (often very happily, or at least without need) pay for big houses or big cars. Average new car price in Germany is 42K. Insane!
The capital income alone from this buying price alone (don't forget about fuel insurance etc) if invested is more than a grocery budget for a person.
Many people claim to have a lack of money, when it's really just a lack of restraint on luxury.
Enjoyed the video, but why compare German toast with American toast cake? Sugar wise. :)
Minced beef calculation is wrong.
DE: 400g (4 x 100g) = €4.99. thus 4.99 € / 4 = 1.25€/100g
USA: 1.13 lb = 513g = (5.13 x 100g). 7.01€ / 5.13 = 1.36€/100g
You deserve a medal for all the calculations you had to do. Good job 👏👏👏
As far as I remember, in Australia Aldi is a little expensive compared with another supermarkets
US large eggs are about the same size as EU medium size.
Aldi-US is Germanys "Thank You!" for the Berlin Luftbrücke. 😄
Of course Mississippi and Alabama tax groceries at full rate. Because of course they do. Illinois is the bit of the head scratcher there. Needs to come off.
Whoever came up with a sales tax of 1.225% must have been a math teacher before that hates the student's incompetence so much they decided to go legislator and make them do math the really hard way. 😵💫
So American groceries are not more expensive? Those people posting about half a shopping cart full of groceries costing $200 in the US which would only cost about €50 in Germany were just lying? Shocking.
Very interesting video. I thought the USA was at least twice as expensive as Germany.
Nope.It's about 40% more expensive in The US for fruits and vegetables except fir few Things like bananas,Avocados,Nuts but for meat,Poultry,Eggs,Milks there aren’t any significant difference
No way you triple checked chicken prices because as an avid chicken eater, I've never seen, at any grocery store, any type of chicken or poultry meat that costs even half of what you just said, in the last 15 years.
Here in the UK most sellers include unit pricing on the shelf ticket, making comparisons easy. Does this happen in the US and Germany?
Most of the time, yes. But not always.
In the EU standard price per weight/volume are required
LIDL is my preference in the BRD, Aldi in the US
Aah but did the euro fit in the shopping cart??? 😂😂😂
Thankfully I didn't have to check... but now I'm wishing I did.
@@TypeAshton hahaha this will keep nagging me now (and knowing you it will probably be nagging you until your next visit to the US)....
I find it shocking that some U.S. states and Germany impose taxes on groceries. The only morally acceptable tax rate for essential food items is 0
I would say the main question is what is the minimum wage, unemployment benefits and other social transfers. This in the end determines what is justified and "morally" acceptable
So I think you made some mistakes when choosing the products (I'm just trow in fancy Dinkel Toast vs. regular US sandwich weat bread) - but that happens. But you obviously made the biggest mistake in the price information with REWE chicken. You're will not seriously saying that chicken breast costs €100 per kilo? But you could really have noticed that yourself. I assume that the price of €9.90 that you noted is not the 100gram price but the price per kilogram.
By the way, at REWE 10 own brand eggs cost €1.99 and at ALDI, according to your video, they cost €2.29. It should be said that I have never seen them sold out at REWE.
But in the end I think it's good that you put this effort into your video.
She also miscounted The Han house chicken
Alright, I got it! When I watch this video a second time, I'll reduce playback speed. All that number crunching made me dizzy.
Wasn't there also a slight mistake with prizes of the joghurt?
wasnt there "normal" grounded beef in Germany? as you bought the more expensive organic one :p
Not by the store brand