Skilled labor shortage hits the sausage counter: This is changing at Edeka

At some point, Max Sauer had had enough. He owns several Edeka branches in North Rhine-Westphalia, but instead of just managing them from his desk, he was recently standing behind the sausage and meat counter in his stores – out of necessity. Too many master butchers and specialist sales staff had called in sick at the same time. Personal contact at the counter is already rare. Now Sauer has pulled the ripcord. In some stores, he has temporarily abolished the fresh produce counter, where only pre-packaged meat products are available.

An example that is threatening to happen in many Edekas in Germany in the future. The parent company of the franchisees has now announced that it will gradually restructure the markets in the southwest, northern Bavaria, southern Bavaria, northern and Minden-Hanover regions. The Lebensmittel-Zeitung reports on this. The old meat, sausage and cheese counters are to be converted into flexible counters. This means that more pre-packaged goods will be offered and personal service will only be provided at certain peak times or not at all.

Customers are buying less and less meat

There are two reasons for this step: One is the shortage of skilled workers. There is a particular shortage of master butchers. “I tried desperately to find a master and skilled workers. But nothing came of it,” says Anja Kost, who runs an Edeka in Bad Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein, to the Hamburger Abendblatt.

The same problem is also being reported from other parts of the country: The Lörrach district on the Swiss border has already flown in 13 apprentices from India in a pilot project since 2022. In Minden, the Edeka Group trained 35 master butchers itself last year – but it is not enough. To become a master butcher, you first have to have specialist training, and even that is not one of the most popular apprenticeships in Germany.

The lack of interest in the profession coincides with another social trend: people are eating less and less meat. In 2023, the average per capita consumption in Germany will be just 51.6 kilograms. In 2018, it was 60.9 kilograms, and in 2011, it was even 63.8 kilograms. While this is the result of a longer-term social trend, which is expressed in more vegans and vegetarians, but also in lower consumption by meat eaters, there is another reason for the sudden downturn of the past two years: Due to high inflation, many people have to live more frugally, and expensive meat is often the first point at which savings are made on food. If less meat is eaten, however, supermarkets also sell less, which means they need less staff – and at some point a fresh food counter is no longer worthwhile.

What plans does Edeka’s competitor have?

Edeka is now the first of the large markets to announce that it will be reducing or eliminating the counters. There have also been a few Rewe markets where the fresh food counters have been reduced in recent years – for the same reasons. For two years now, Edeka’s competitor has been testing a concept in which the meat counter in some markets also offers vegetarian and vegan alternatives. However, it remains to be seen to what extent this justifies the use of staff.

Fresh food counters are also a cost factor apart from the employees, because they require appropriate cooling rooms and equipment, which are not required for pre-packaged goods. This is why the discounters Aldi and Lidl do not have counters at all.

The whole thing is not just a German problem: In other countries, too, medium-sized meat and sausage counters are disappearing from supermarkets. The Germans share their suffering particularly with Great Britain, where the Tesco and Sainsbury chains are following a similar path to Edeka.

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