Other than promised

Price comparison tool for groceries on the brink of collapse

Supermarket shopping is becoming more and more expensive for all of us.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Sven Hoppe)

As laudable as the intention may be, the implementation seems pitiful. The price comparison database for foodstuffs announced last year by the black-green coalition is still a long time coming and may even be on the verge of being scrapped altogether. In a response to a question, Economics Minister Martin Kocher explained that the creation of a state tool was "not appropriate".

"That was a pure marketing stunt", these words from former Minister Beate Hartinger-Klein on the patient billion in the COFAG-U committee resonate - and may also apply to a long-promised prestige project from the black-green coalition - a price comparison database for food. It was promised until September last year. It is still missing today, as the "Krone" has already uncovered. 

What it's all about
The announcement was to ensure lower prices through more competition. Since then, however, the opposite has happened. And, as is well known, prices have since risen far more than in Germany and the eurozone (see chart).

In Austria, food shopping is particularly expensive.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

The political result was mutual blame-shifting. Kocher referred to coordination, where his proposal had failed. Sigi Maurer, Green Party leader and part of the aforementioned coordination, claimed, however, that she had never received a corresponding proposal. The SPÖ therefore identified massive omissions and asked Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Kocher in a parliamentary question to find out what the problem was and why. His answers are now available - and they are explosive. 

It is an undignified, black/green spectacle. One of the two sides is telling the truth. The losers are the people in Austria who pay excessively high prices at the supermarket checkout every day

Philip Kucher, SPÖ-Klubobmann

Comparison tool "not appropriate"?
"As is well known, there are already numerous private price comparison tools available to consumers. It is therefore not appropriate to set up a state-run rival product," Kocher explains in the response to the question. Although it is not appropriate, Kocher also underlines in his explanations that the proposal was sent to the coordination mailbox at the Federal Ministry of Finance at the beginning of December 2023 after being drawn up by the Ministry of Labor. "The further communication channels are the responsibility of the coordination department," he added. 

Philip Kucher identifies omissions.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

For political observers and the SPÖ, it seems clear that the promised big deal is unlikely to materialize. "One of the two sides is telling the truth. The losers are the people in Austria who pay excessive prices at the supermarket checkout every day. The profiteers are the food companies/retailers, who charge outrageously high prices in Austria compared to the rest of Europe," explains SPÖ party chairman Philip Kucher.