From Antje Passenheim, ARD Studio New York How does the German discounter Lidl pronounce itself? The customers don’t care. “I only knew Aldi,” says one customer, “I think these are brothers who then broke up.” Well, something like that. No matter if it’s true: The New Yorker from Queens has lost her heart to the “German Supermarket”. She is completely obsessed with shopping in the bright new store that – apart from most US products – could be anywhere in Germany and has just opened in her Astoria neighborhood. The queue then moved around two blocks. “I am here for the third time this week,” says the customer. Fish and meat and German bread and vegetables – and in general: “The prices are great! Astoria has become so expensive. In this supermarket I can afford all the organic things.”

German chains put pressure on the competition

Lidl, Aldi and the Aldi-Nord subsidiary Trader Joe’s: They have become real competition for the large US markets. Lidl has only been around for three and a half years – with 145 stores now. After starting problems, the group now wants to conquer the east coast. Aldi has had over 2,000 branches since the 1970s – and the trend is growing, says US boss Jason Hart: “Our sales are better than the average of the US markets. And that encourages us to move into existing stores as well as new ones to invest. ” They are cheaper than the US competition. Whether with more own brands like Aldi or with more branded items like Lidl. Pallets in the aisles, cardboard boxes on the shelves – even in the glamorous city of New York, the economical German concept is popular, says Lidl spokesman William Harwood: “It’s the glamor of saving. Putting more into your basket. More about yours Bring family home. ”

Less is more?

Especially since even New Yorkers have been at the stove themselves more often since Corona and home office. And that without being constantly spoiled for choice, says Constantin Mellinghoff, who sells German groceries to retailers and markets in the USA: “If you go to an ordinary American supermarket, you will find at least ten different bottles of ketchup, for example.” Instead, Lidl or Trader Joe’s only offer one bottle – “and the quality is so good that you don’t need a second,” says Mellinghoff. This concept is well received in the tightly-timed New York gearbox, says Lidl spokesman Harwood: “You can do your shopping faster. You normally need 45 minutes, you have to go through 50 aisles with 50,000 items. With us you can get through in 20 minutes.”

One discounter, one concept: the Lidl branches in the USA differ little in appearance from the markets in Germany. Image: Antje Passenheim, WDR

German specialties, American special requests

Fresh pretzels, German sourdough bread, wheat beer and a DIY set in the special offer shopping basket: German discounters also score points with newcomers with seasonal items, for example with Aldi customer Tanja: “It’s nice to see a few German products. At Christmas, dominoes or gingerbread. Or Viennese sausages every now and then. ” Sometimes other customer requests get lost in the German representation: Wouldn’t the new Lidl in Queens also include kosher products? Wouldn’t the branch on the chic offshore island of Long Island also serve champagne? “German discounters” are acceptable everywhere, says Diana Smith from the market research institute Mintel. “The desire for a good price-performance ratio runs through all income groups. Markets like Aldi are also more often aimed at an audience that earns better.” The internal struggle of the German discounters for the east coast metropolis continues. Newcomer Lidl wants to come to Manhattan soon. Aldi is already there. In the customer ranking of the newspaper “USA Today”, however, Lidl is leading: In front of hundreds of US markets, the chain is in third place. Aldi followed closely in fifth place.

From David Zajonz, WDR Business cheers from companies are rather rare these days. The Cologne-based Rewe Group was able to announce it today. The retail company recorded a 20 percent increase in sales in the Corona year 2020 compared to the previous year. Part of this goes back to the takeover of the wholesaler Lekkerland, but Rewe posted double-digit growth in the supermarket business alone in Germany.

A lot of sales apart from groceries

Industry-wide, the German trade association speaks of an eight percent increase in sales in the grocery trade, while clothing stores, for example, have to accept dramatic losses. The supermarkets benefit from the fact that other retailers have to close their shops temporarily, says Gerrit Heinemann, retail expert at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences: “In food retailing, depending on the retailer, ten to 50 percent of sales are made with products that are not groceries.”

“A little unfair”

In the large Rewe centers, for example, customers can buy many everyday products, from frying pans to shoes. While kitchen outfitters or shoe stores went into lockdown, the Rewe stores were allowed to remain open during the pandemic. That is actually “a bit unfair,” says Rewe CEO Lionel Souque: “If I were a textile chain, I wouldn’t understand either.” Rewe itself only benefited slightly from this, because many smaller branches do not offer such a wide range of products. Nevertheless, the effect is noticeable. Souque confirms that the large Rewe centers have developed better than the classic supermarkets during the pandemic.

“Home office effect” for online deliveries

In addition, the food trade has also benefited from the closure of the catering trade, says trade expert Gerrit Heinemann: “People have increasingly bought food and drinks in the supermarket.” In addition, there is the “home office effect”. Those who work at home have to buy more in the supermarket: “Just toilet paper”. Another big trend is the booming grocery delivery business. Consumers are still far more likely to have books sent home than potatoes. But the Corona year led to a “dam break”, says retail expert Heinemann, and the proportion of groceries bought online has grown significantly: “However, it has come from a very low level – to just over one percent of the entire market.” The food deliveries are – at least for Rewe – a losing business: “We continue to lose money, but you don’t have to see that negatively,” says CEO Souque: “We see it as an investment in the future.”

Competition grows

The hope for further growth in online trading is causing more and more players to pour into the market. “Instant delivery services” like Gorilla and Flink in some large cities promise food deliveries within ten minutes of ordering. However, retail expert Heinemann believes that it is almost impossible for delivery services in Germany to work profitably: “The margins in the food retail sector are very low.” Consumers are used to low prices because of the many discounters. This means that the high delivery costs for the dealers are hardly manageable. In fact, it is difficult “when customers order three cases of cola on offer on the fourth floor,” admits Rewe boss Souque. On the other hand, the corona pandemic brought many new customers to food suppliers. So the cake is growing, and players both old and new want their share of it. Industry expert Heinemann says that he does not believe that the online share in the food sector will rise over ten percent of total sales in the next few years: “But even then, food would be one of the largest online product groups.” Supermarket chains and start-ups will probably continue to fight for online customers despite all the difficulties.

By Klaus-Rainer Jackisch, MR Chocolate Easter bunnies landed in the Easter basket less often than usual this year. Business was rather sluggish due to the coronavirus pandemic. The industry had already reduced the number of units in advance so as not to sit on the shelves, as in the previous year, or to sell them off at dumping prices. But overall, “the Easter business was very mixed,” says Solveig Schneider, spokeswoman for the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry in Bonn, drawing a preliminary balance.

Easter is more important than Christmas

German manufacturers produced a good 215 million chocolate bunnies this season, wrapped in colorful tinfoil and always with a smile on their face, a good half of them for export. That was far more than the 150 million or so Santa Clauses that rolled off the tapes for the winter. Because for a number of years now, the Easter business has been more important to the industry than the Christmas season. Although people eat more in Corona times and Germans have an average of at least one kilogram more on their ribs, the complicated chocolate business is currently not going well in many areas.

Falling sales

While the grocery trade had few problems getting chocolate Easter items to the public and there were sometimes even bottlenecks – triggered by the hacking around the planned and then canceled Easter rest, which prompted some to buy hamsters – it saw sales on the important sales areas looks very different in department stores. “Our companies sit on the ordered goods and cannot get rid of them,” complained the confectionery association president Bastian Fassin even before the Easter business. The chocolate slack is also reflected in the books of the manufacturers. The traditional Swiss group Lindt & Sprüngli, which has been used to success and has been growing for years and has an important mainstay in Germany, was able to beat its way through the crisis last year. But the fact that many Lindt stores were forced to close due to the pandemic left clear marks on the balance sheet. Even at Ritter Sport, whose square chocolate can be found in almost every country in the world during normal times, sales fell for the second time in a row due to the pandemic. The specialist dealers were hit much worse – such as the Deutsche Confiserie Holding, behind which the 300 or so stores of Hussel, Arko and Eilles are hidden. Due to the downturn in consumers, the company with around 1,600 employees had to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of the year.

Consumers reluctant to experiment

The failure of the International Confectionery Fair in Cologne this year was also very bitter for the industry – so far unique in the 50-year history of the world’s largest trade fair of its kind. Because the chocolate industry thrives on innovation. German manufacturers in particular are extremely inventive and that is why they play such an important role on the world market. “But you also have to touch and try new products from time to time – that doesn’t work digitally,” says Schneider. Market researchers have found that in times of pandemics, customers concentrate on traditional products when they scurry through the discounter in the evening in the stress of corona to quickly buy the bare essentials. Standing in front of the shelf for a long time and trying something out is rather flat. Especially since retailers currently prefer toilet paper and pasta to new chocolate creations on display anyway. The industry is also severely affected by the closure of hotels and restaurants – the demand for cocoa and chocolate treats has plummeted. And then there are the chocolate bars and mini-snacks that you can take with you at the station kiosk or just before departure. Here, too, sales have declined significantly due to the downturn in travel. The Heinemann brothers, market leaders in Germany’s duty-free shops, and are represented at almost every airport in this country, feel this too. One has already experienced many crises, said CEO Max Heinemann in the “Handelsblatt”. But “the dimensions of this pandemic are so far incomparable.” The chocolate sales of the Hamburg trading house in Germany collapsed by almost 80 percent last year.

Chips and nuts are more in demand

The question is where the pounds come from that the German citizens carry around with them. Probably not about chocolate, says the Confectionery Association – but about chips, flips, pretzel sticks and other nibble pastries. This sells particularly well in times of crisis, as do nuts and trail mix, which are popular in the home office. All of these divisions recorded significant increases in sales. So the joys and sorrows in the confectionery industry are closely related. And what happens to the chocolate Easter bunnies that are left behind? Contrary to popular belief, they will not be melted down again to mutate into Santa Claus. The industry attaches great importance to this. Instead, they would be donated to aid organizations.