The reason is simple – coffee has become extremely expensive. Its price increased faster than average food prices. In April 2025, coffee beans are 12.2 percent in Germany. more expensive than in the same month last year. Supermarkets are now trying to outsmart thieves in different ways.
“We do not do this to annoy our clients. Unfortunately, the theft of coffee has increased so much that we have to protect ourselves,” says Kristin Köbernik, the owner of the Königstraße Edeka supermarket in Berlin-Wannsee. If you want to buy a kilo of coffee, you need to go to the cash register, where cigarettes and expensive alcohol are also issued.
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“Threat to our existence”
Take, for example, the Schloßstraße supermarket in Berlin-Steglitz, where only product photos of coffee packages are exhibited on the shelves. If someone wants to buy coffee, they report to sellers, and the amount desired is then given to the customer at the cash register. In the supermarket at Müllerstraße (Berlin-Wedding) coffee is closed behind the glass, even the soluble one.
Discount stores have also suffered and try to defend themselves: one of the shops at Bergstraße (Berlin-Steglitz) places a maximum of two packages of each type of coffee on the shelf. In the worst case, only two packs of coffee will disappear, not 20. It is also easier to notice that the goods are no longer on the shelf, but nobody buys and does not pay for coffee at the checkout.
Economic losses are huge. The Retail Trade Association estimates them at around EUR 200 million a year in Berlin alone. In 2023, almost 40,000 were recorded there. shop theft.
“As an employer, we bear responsibility for our employees. If the losses of theft are too high, we get into trouble. If we did not take these funds, we could not be able to pay salaries or bills. Store storefts on such a scale pose a threat to the existence of retail sellers” – explains Köbernik.
Shops have already been modernized. Cabinet systems, cameras, closed shelves, marked goods. There are technologically advanced stores where shelves send a signal to management if many goods are suddenly removed at once. This is because thieves often steal whole pallets of coffee.
