The President of the Cyprus Consumers Association, Marios Drousiotis, requests from the Consumer Protection Service of the Ministry of Commerce the disclosure of the amount or percentage of discount on the price of a product offered by a supermarket, as well as the names of the supermarkets that it includes in the Price Observatory, stating to the KYPE that from 21 product offers, included in the Observatory, the prices of 20 offers were higher than another supermarket that did not have offers.
With this announcement, “the consumer will be able to identify what really applies to each supermarket through the Service's price table”, he added.
Specifically, commenting on the price comparison table between three supermarkets in Nicosia that was published on May 22, through the Product Price Observatory, by the Consumer Protection Service, Mr. Drousiotis said that in one of the three supermarkets, there were 21 product offers, adding , however, that out of those 21 offers, the prices of 20 products were higher than another supermarket whose prices of the corresponding products were not on offer.
This means, he said, that some supermarkets are running offers , for small or large price reductions, which if compared to the prices of another supermarket may be higher – as is the case in this particular case.
As a typical example of the order from the Consumer Service price table, Mr. Drousiotis brought the offer that a supermarket had for the product Kelloggs Coco Pops Chocos 330g, with a price of €3.27, and the price of the same product, of €2.65, which another supermarket had, without an offer.
“As organized consumers, we ask the Service to always disclose the names of the supermarkets and state the amount or percentage of discount offered by every supermarket,” he underlined.
The President of the Consumers' Association said that when there is no law that prohibits them from selling as high as each supermarket wants, there is the tool of publicity and correct consumer information.< /p>
“If the consumer knows that the final prices of the offers of supermarket A are higher than the offer of another supermarket, he will have the opportunity to decide whether or not to use this supermarket,” he added.
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Mr. Drousiotis told KYPE that “the action of the supermarket is legal, but the consumer with the right information and with his attitude is pushing for the offers and prices to move at acceptable levels”.
