Example shopping list

Today we created six typical shopping lists for a family of two adults and one teenager:

• Three lists comparing Coop with Kaufland over three different shopping-periods (weekly, fortnightly and monthly).
• Three lists comparing Lidl CH with Lidl DE over the same periods as above.

The idea is to take a map of the border region in Canton Aargau and draw concentric circles centred on each German shopping location. Each circle represents a certain distance (e.g. 5km, 10km, 15km). With this map we want to illustrate the value of cross-border shopping versus the distance of the consumer's residence from the German border. Obviously distance is inversely proportional to savings. The two prime factors are distance and transport costs. To take the extremes:

•  If you live right beside the border, it's well-worthwhile 
•  If you live 200km away, you just won't bother.  

In the case of Canton Aargau we will try to illustrate the cut off point, where cross-border shopping is no longer worthwhile. Two more important factors are:

• How often is the consumer prepared to make the trip to Germany
• How much he is willing to spend on each visit. 
• For instance, a person with  a big freezer will be happy to buy a lot more and therefore does not have to make the trip so often. 

Finally another two factors which must be considered are:

• Will the consumer respect the customs allowances or will he chance exceeding the legal limits in pursuit of greater savings.
• The number of people travelling together to maximise the benefit of the customs allowance.

Basic map example

The major problem we had to take in to consideration was the size amount of food we decided on.

Another problem was that the food in CH/DE didn't necessarily come in same shapes and sizes. 

We decided to use the lists from before the holidays and use our own shopping experience to get a value that all agreed on (e.g. 500g of pasta per week).

To solve the other problem we just entered the average price of the two products so that one isn't righter than the other.

Next week we are planing on creating six maps and finding a place to put them in our final product.

Information gathering on family shopping

Today, Jochanan and Lirim went to Baden to ask people on how often they go shopping in general. With that kind of information we are now able to calculate an approximate percentage of savings compared CH/DE. The problem was because it was during the week, the interviewed people were mostly larger families (two kids or more). So it was hard to find people without children or singles.
As a solution, we asked our friends and relatives for their shopping attitude. What we gathered from our questionnaire was that families go shopping more frequently in average once a week for big grocery shopping. And singles go on a big shopping-spree every other week.
 We also asked what kind of products are always on their shopping lists and in what amounts. The majority bought an average amount of 4-5 litres of milk per head per week, 150g of pasta per head per week, 150g of rice per head per week, package of ten eggs per week which were mostly battery farmed eggs.
On items like potatoes or other vegetables, we didn't get exact numbers because the amount would vary a lot. We had a problem with measuring the amount of bread consumed, because the individuals like to buy the bread the night before, so that it's fresh.

In the meantime Primo is still in Shanghai.

Questionnaire in Waldshut

Because Primo has left to Shanghai, Lirim and Jochanan will have to take over a part of his work and do other tasks like this questionnaire in  a smaller group. It shouldn't be a big problem, because it isn't very hard work, just more time-consuming.

We went to Germany and asked the local people in front of Kaufland about their opinion on the so called "shopping tourists". We asked them questions like: If they felt exploited by the Swiss, since they don't even have to pay taxes to the German government unlike the locals.

The opinions were very diverse, some people had big problems with the Swiss and felt shame, just because it made Germany look cheap. But most of the people that were open, didn't mind at all because they knew that many Germans work in Switzerland and live in Germany and do also save a big amount of money.

Unfortunately quite a few people weren't in the mood to talk with us about this phenomena. We assume that locals feel exploited and that may be a factor why they don't want to talk about it.
But from this we learnt that not everyone appreciates the "shopping tourists", even though it isn't happening on a large scale in Waldshut compared to Konstanz or Weil am Rhein.

Price checking in Aldi/Lidl in Switzerland

Today Jochanan went to compare the prices in Lidl in Wettingen while Primo went to Aldi in Wettingen. While comparing a few prices we noticed that the stores in Wettingen were a lot smaller than in Waldshut. While looking for the exact same products, I sometimes had to look for similar ones, because they weren't available. So what we both did, was take the cheapest product we saw and compared it to the cheapest product in Germany with the same genre. Since it is the cheapest product available in the country, we felt that this is a good comparison. Another problem was nationalism supported in both shops. The two Supermarket chains supported local businesses, so the meat and bread was made in Switzerland, which of course made a massive difference on the meat prices, which were twice or even three times as high as in Germany. A surprising factor was, that in Aldi water was cheaper in Switzerland, even without the depot that you pay in Germany. 19 Cents per litre in Germany and 16 Rappen in Switzerland. 

In Aldi in Wettingen, especially in the beauty product section, a lot of products were not sold in the store like dove deodorants and shampoos.

So next time we would probably write down the Swiss prices, before comparing them to the German prices. 

While Jochanan and Primo went price-listing, Lirim researched the exact taxation laws in Germany.

Next time we will try to create a map and find out how much you save on a regular shopping tour when going to Germany instead of Switzerland.

Shopping in Germany Round 2

Before we went shopping in Germany again, we had a conversation with out supervisor Ms Frei. She told us what we could do to get a more accurate price difference between the shops in Switzerland and Germany. So we took her advice and went to Aldi and Lidl in Waldshut.

There we noted down from all product ranges one product each. With some articles we weren't sure if those were also sold in Switzerland. So what we did to fix that problem is write down the brands and noted down multiple products of various brands.

On our way home we measured the time. It took us 28 minutes to get to the Kanti from Lidl with minor traffic jams.

We all learnt that the meat was extremely cheap and bought a few kilograms of chicken. The layout of the shops was pretty much the same as in an Aldi or Lidl at home, so we had no problems finding our way through the shop(s).
 

Informationgathering

Today Jochanan and Primo went to the Coop in Tägipark in Wettingen to compare the prices of the products in Germany since Coop didn't want to send us a list with the prices of their products.

Lirim worked on his formula and looked up the various laws for import/export of "luxury goods" and all the German VAT regulations.

Formula:

 

P_G              = Price paid for goods in Germany in CHF

8%             = VAT, charge on food, which is rebated

P_CH            = Price in Switzerland for the goods

0.42CHF    = Transport expenses. From our calculation

P_T              = opportunity cost, price you pay for using your free time T_h in hours multiplied per the unit X in CHF you evaluate your free time from 20 CHF (minimum wage) up to 150 CHF for the missing something very important    T_h * X CHF= P_T

Explanation:

P_G is the price in CHF paid in Germany; the 8% are VAT on food which you get back, so this is subtracted from the costs paid abroad. 0.42CHF is the driving-cost per kilometre in Swiss Francs, used the most sold car in Switzerland in 2013: The VW Golf, 1.4 TSI. This number changes for every car, in general, the bigger the engine and the more expensive the car, the higher this number gets. Since it is the cost per kilometre, the distance to the shop abroad has to be multiplied by 0.42CHF. P_T is the time invested in driving to the shop, the time it takes to do all the grocery shopping is not relevant because it also needs to be invested in shopping in Switzerland. The time multiplied by a number in CHF you would value your free time, considering that, if not abroad, you have to do your grocery shopping either way. All costs, subtracted the 8% VAT of the price paid in Germany, makes the enumerator, which is divided by the price you would have to pay in Switzerland for the same goods, gives us a quotient Q and the smaller the number is, the higher is the benefit of the shopping tour. If the quotient Q=1 or more, it means that it is not worth shopping abroad.

 

Not the greatest start

After having a phone call with a confirmation of a price-list from December 2014 in Coop the woman on the phone told Primo to send a mail with the information he needed. In return Primo got an E-Mail which said they didn't have such things as price-lists from the past. 

Migros on the other hand gave Lirim a PDF file in which they wrote a lot about shopping over the border and why you should/shouldn't do it. 

Jochanan couldn't found an economic sociologist which is willing to give us his opinion about shopping in Germany. So we decided as we did for the website, as it is a side product, we thought we will consider the newspapers as a main source for the social problem.