In Munich, you will find supermarkets such as V-Markt, Hamberger, Metro and similar ones. And you will find any number of discount shops. And delicatessen. Consequently, it is hardly a surprise that, especially among women, the conversation is often about the variety, quality and price of products offered at the different shops.
“But you pay less for salted French butter at shop A”
“Well, Greek yoghurt is less expensive at shop B”
“To make up for it, shop C has quite cheap fish!”
“But isn’t meat rather expensive at shop E?”
I must be fair and admit that these kinds of conversation are not exclusively about the price. They are also about quality and freshness of the product, friendly service and competence among the salespersons, the general appearance of the shop, etc. But still, the price is an important issue. That annoys me.
Why do I hate it?
First and foremost, I find these kinds of conversations extremely boring. Secondly, I think the prices in a shop depend on three elements:
- Purchase price.
It is rather low if the shop manages to buy conveniently. In other words: the prices can be low if he can put pressure on his providers and if he buys products that have been – cautiously described – “massively rationalized and optimized”. - His own costs.
Those basically come down to the added value (shop building, location, service, variety) generated by the enterprise and to what his employees cost. In other words: if the service is at a low leven or poorly organized (bad location, no easy access, little variety, no service or support), then the cost is lower. Poorly paid employees, at least initially, help to lower costs and enable cheaper prices. - The marge (profit, ebit)
Finally, the marge has an influence on the price. If a shop writes red ink, there is no profit in the prices. It means that you are practically subsidized. To be sure, this looks convenient at first glance. Yet in the end it helps neither the enterprise nor the consumer. On the other hand, if an enterprise has a too high marge, I feel cheated. These days, however, it is more the producing concerns (tobacco and beer) that get the extraordinary marges.
Taking this into consideration, the consequence must be that I cannot decide what to buy because of the price for butter or cheese. Instead, I must consider which enterprise does the best job on the whole, including its profit situation. And you should not just follow where the simple and always singular price comparisons point.
All other dimensions taken as a basis for evaluation of these enterprises always look very subjective to me. You only have to look at the constantly diverging opinions you can hear in conversations:
“The selection of cheeses is not too good at shop A, but the fish is fresher”
“No, shop B has much fresher fish, but the meat is not as tasty”
“No, the meat is ok at shop C, but the vegetables leave room for improvement!”
“Well, the vegetables are certainly fresher at shop D, but the cheese selection is limited”
So what do I do?
After having spent some time patiently listening, I try to initiate a change of subject in the conversation, or else I leave after having found a more or less intelligent but almost always insincere excuse.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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