Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Germany Sees Hamsterkauf, What Is It?


Mon 02 Mar 2020 | 11:00 PM
Hassan El-Khawaga

Germany witnesses these days empty supermarket shelves amid the coronavirus outbreak. What is surprising is there’s a German word to describe the act of panic hoarding.

The word Hamsterkauf, a noun made up of the German words for “hoarding” (hamstern) and “buy” (kaufen) has been trending on German social media as people share photos of store shelves cleared out of food and other household items.

The word “hamstern” comes from the hamster, which stores food in its cheeks.

In Germany, this word has also been used to describe the rush on supermarkets that occurs before long holiday weekends when supermarkets will be closed.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported that the first signs of Hamsterkauf had been seen in Germany, citing discount retailers Aldi and Lidl.

Among the items being hoarded are tinned goods and pasta, as well as toilet paper and disinfectants.

At least 129 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Germany, as the number of cases doubled on Sunday.

More than half of the cases are in North Rhine-Westphalia, which counts Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Dortmund as its biggest cities.