By John Esau
Food prices are increasing at an alarming rate making it extremely difficult for most citizens of this country to make ends meet.
Even us pensioners are caught up in this discomfort, with no end in sight soon. One can only imagine how the poor/unemployed are battling with the ever-rising cost of feeding their families.
The time has arrived for supermarkets to place a cap on increases of items priced out of people’s reach. What happened when suppliers’ price structures on items were deemed way too expensive, supermarkets would refuse to stock them, forcing suppliers to lower prices to benefit consumers.
Not today. It looks as if they are out to fleece suppliers and consumers.
Remember to have your goods listed at supermarket level is of great cost to the supplier, whether it be in the form of money or stock. This gives the owners a huge profit without having sold any of those products.
I'm sure that operation is still in practice today. I should know as I worked for a supplier who went to great lengths to have its goods on the supermarkets’ database.
The deals struck with these negotiations made the supermarkets massive profits.
Our government is incapable of assisting in alleviating the burden consumers face as they see themselves as way above the electorate. So the question is what are the supermarkets prepared to do to help the people? We need a solution.
Cape Times
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