To be fair, Germany has the lowest consumer prices on food of almost any EU country due to the economies of scale it can leverage, similar to pre-Brexit UK. Meanwhile, Austria and Denmark have the most expensive food prices in the EU while salaries aren't higher than Germany, at least not in Austria. And for the sake of contrast, let's talk about the insane groceries prices in Switzerland (not EU but borders Germany). Romania and Bulgaria have the lowest prices in the EU, but when you adjust to median income, they're actually really high "thanks" to the EU's ease of trade where Romanian/Bulgarian producers can make more money selling their goods to the richer countries rather than locally therefore reducing the local supply, resulting in increased prices for the locals as a consequence.

And, AFAIK, it's the same in North America, with the US having the lowest consumer prices and highest salaries while neighboring Canada has to make due with higher prices and lower wages.

My point is, the perceived expense of goods varies wildly based on your region's economic leverage, so large, rich countries with powerful economies and huge supply chains tend to be much better off at dampening these effects than the rest.

Not sure from where you get your EU data. Eurostat disagrees: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

But also regarding Germany: the market for supermarkets is very crowded (Aldi, Lidl, Edeka etc.) where there is a lot of price pressure between supermarkets. So the companies don't profit as much as they could in markets with less competition. The real beneficiary are the consumers.

Germany has huge subsidies on foods so that wages can be kept low, and people don't notice inflation too much. Just think of the fact that people in neighboring countries who live close to the border come to Germany to buy groceries.

Counter anecdote: I noticed various (relatively) recent price increases for essential food items in all major German supermarkets for the cheapest options (store brand), some examples from the top of my head: canned tuna (single can) 0.99 -> 1.29; dry noodles (500g): 0.39 -> 0.49; cake (1250g) 2.99 -> 3.29; It pisses me off. Everything is supposedly getting more effective, automated and yet everything important is getting more and more expensive. What also is happening is shrinkflation and reduction in quality.