€200 million in losses: why coffee disappeared from German shelves
28 July 2025 09:30
Many Berlin supermarkets can no longer afford to keep coffee on the shelves. With thefts becoming more frequent and brazen, Edeka, Rewe, Lidl, and other stores have suddenly started hiding brown beans from their customers. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Bild.
The reason is that coffee in Germany has become incredibly expensive – its price has risen more than average food prices. In April 2025, bean coffee went up by 12.2% compared to the previous year. Now supermarkets are trying to protect themselves from shoplifters in various ways.
“We are not doing this to annoy our valued customers. But theft of coffee has increased so much that we have to protect ourselves,”
– says Christine Kjobernik, owner of the Edeka store. Here, to buy a pound of coffee, you have to go to a stationary checkout, which also sells cigarettes and expensive alcoholic beverages.
In another supermarket in Berlin’s Steglitz district, the shelves now contain only photos of coffee packages. If someone wants to buy coffee, they ask the sellers, and the required amount is put aside at the cash register.
In another supermarket, coffee is kept behind glass under lock and key. Six rows of shelves high, even instant coffee. To get coffee, you have to call or ask the staff.
Even discounters have been affected and are trying to defend themselves: one store puts a maximum of two bags of each variety on the shelf. In the worst case scenario, only two bags of coffee will go missing, not 20. In addition, it is more likely to be noticed when the product is not on the shelf, but no one has bought or paid for the coffee at the checkout.
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Huge losses
The economic damage from coffee theft is enormous. The Retail Association estimates it at around 200 million euros a year in Berlin alone. In 2023, there were almost 40,000 cases of shoplifting in Berlin.
“As employers, we have a responsibility to our employees. If the losses due to theft are too high, we find ourselves in a difficult situation. If we didn’t take these measures, we might not be able to pay salaries or pay bills. Shoplifting on this scale is an existential threat to retailers,”
– says Kjobernik.
Technological armament
At the same time, stores have already strengthened their technical protection. Barrier systems, cameras, locked shelves, labeled goods. There are high-tech stores where the shelves signal the management when a lot of goods are suddenly taken away at once. After all, thieves often steal entire pallets of coffee.
The latest development: AI surveillance is now also used. These camera systems should be able to recognize suspicious behavior and even attempted thefts in real time and report them.
The rise in the price of coffee around the world is due to a poor harvest of coffee beans. Because of this, even Ukrzaliznytsia is raising prices for tea and coffee on trains for the first time in six years. But despite the problems, the tea and coffee market in Ukraine is growing.
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