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The supermarket chains are increasing the pressure on their rivals as well as on consumers with mega campaigns declaring cheap(er) prices, better quality, value-for-money, and an array of market-speak that makes no sense in real terms.
Low-cost retailers Lidl will be opening their seven stores this week and Christos Orphanides said he would be adding another 11 stores to his chain, promising that prices would be “lower than anywhere else”.
Local stores in all towns have also built up reputations as the cheapest of their kind attracting thousands of loyal consumers who seek bargains and fill their trolleys to brimming capacity as if there is no tomorrow.
We, Cypriots, love spending when it comes to children’s clothes, education and healthcare, but most of all we like to show off our middle-class egos by the size of our supermarket trolley. As long as we keep spending like the financially consumers that we are, it is clear that there is no economic crisis in Cyprus. We are not concerned with unemployment, slowing construction, drop in tourism and diminishing local industries.
However, if we are going to spend, we might as well do this wisely. When was the last time investors voted with their wallets and “punished” a stock for being over-priced or controlled by crooks? When did we vote with our feet and walk out of supermarket chains that allege they have the cheapest goods, but then hike prices on other non-essentials that have greater demand?
If we continue to be trapped by the marketing antics of the supermarket chains, we will never get out of the mounting debts that hound many households, who simply get out larger loans or bigger credit card facilities to pay off what they owe. Even young professionals want to prove their status by the branded bag they buy or labeled suit, which they later pay off in 12 installments through their credit card, not realising that at the end of the day the interest alone might cost them as much as the bag or suit.
Government officials and MPs got on the ethical bandwagon of challenging the spiraling prices in the market, but no one did anything about it. They simply appeased their voters.
We can try out the new stores, check out prices here and compare them with the prices at existing stores and other abroad, as well as use the weekly consumer observer lists compiled by the Ministry of Trade as a tool to point us in the right direction. Unless we vote with our wallets, none of the local or imported supermarkets will ever take us seriously and continue to rip us off with prices that have been customised to the needs and abilities of the well-to-do Cypriot consumers.
