Blick took a closer look at 13 items: Is our Easter menu cheaper than it was 27 years ago?

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What does Easter hold for Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer? Traffic jams, egg hunts, chocolate bunnies and, of course, a hearty Easter feast. Households think very differently about what that looks like.

Exactly 27 years ago, on March 27, 1997, Blick prepared an Easter menu consisting of flavors from five continents. Besides the obligatory Italian Easter pastry “Colomba,” there were also Easter eggs, white wine, some meat, fruit and vegetables, and an exotic parrot fish. The cost of shopping at the Coop at that time: 156.40 francs for 13 items.

Would the same banquet cost more or less today? Blick assembled the same shopping cart today, March 27, 2024, at the Hen House at the Stadelhofen in Zurich, with slight differences in terms of product origin and a different type of fish. Purchase price: 176.30 francs.

I paid less despite inflation

This corresponds to a price increase of around 12 percent. This is lower than overall inflation would suggest.

156 Swiss francs in 1997 will be worth approximately 185 Swiss francs in 2024, taking inflation into account. Since there is no inflation reference for food alone, we use the national consumer price index (CPI) for comparison: This increased by 17.4 percent between February 1997 and February 2024. During the same period, general inflation in Switzerland was 15.5 percent.

This shows that the prices of our Easter menu have clearly fallen in real terms. Comparis economic expert Dirk Renkert (59) comments: “There were also many years during this period when prices fell. “But this deflation was much less of a problem than the strong inflation we have experienced over the last three years.”

A closer look at the shopping cart shows that the prices of most items are lower than they were 27 years ago. In a few commodities, increases were modest. Lamb chops and slices of salmon alone are much more expensive than they were then, and that alone will make the shopping cart more expensive in 2024. Without them, the shopping cart would be cheaper than it was then, despite inflation. Striking: Both products, which have become significantly more expensive, come from Switzerland.

Why are the products cheap?

Why are other products cheaper? The change in the places of origin of many products is an indication of this. Supply chains have become faster and more efficient, and bulk purchasing has become cheaper. Moreover, the competitive situation in the Swiss retail trade has become significantly more intense since then.

“We have seen huge price increases, especially in the last three years,” Renkert explains. The reasons for this were the bottlenecks in delivery after Corona and the outbreak of the Ukrainian war. This caused energy prices to explode.

But these are not the only ones. Renkert: “Foodstuffs in particular are subject to strong price fluctuations: if the harvest is bad, prices rise. However, these decrease again in high-productivity years.”

For a long time, food prices tended to fall.

Source :Blick