LEADERSHIP
Amid rising cost of food and other essential items, super markets are witnessing poor sales. A survey around departmental stores along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway showed low patronage. An anonymous staff member of one of the stores said, “it has been a herculean task for the stores as we have to set and re-tag some of the items on our shelves.”
Prices of goods and commodities have been on the rise almost on a daily basis in recent times and this may have partly affected the patronage for the departmental stores.
A staff of Kortsy Supermarket who simply identified herself as Adenike said, “Initially, the increase wasn’t as high as this. Presently, you cannot compare the rate to that of three months ago with the prices of commodities on the rise, while shoppers are lamenting and reducing their list of items.
“It is easy to know that the economic power of Nigerians is reducing as it reflects on the patronage we are seeing today.
“The constant change of prices is massively leading to reduction in the economic powers of Nigerians. People are reducing their list of items and based on the adjusted prices which has become a constant thing, people are not trooping in to shop for the weekends like before.”
While Fridays and Saturdays’ patronage in various stores are high, careful observation and interaction with staff of some of the departmental stores showed that there is low patronage in the last few days.
On the regulation of the prices, those who spoke said, they have to set the prices themselves based on what they got in the marketplace, as they echoed that there is no regulatory body that fixes how much the goods should be sold, even as this is a sales and management decision on the price review being the decision of business owners.
Beatrice, a staff of Kortsy Supermarkets, said, though she is at the counter, in the last three months, the constant change in the prices of goods in the supermarket has made customers lament about the cost of items on their shelves.
“As an individual, I can’t even afford to buy some of these items as the prices keep increasing astronomically. I have to check and re-check some items to ascertain if I’m logging-in the right prices for them just as customers keep reducing the items most times when they see new rates of commodities,” she said.
She stressed that the prices, to the best of her knowledge, are not regulated by any authority except the business owners since they would consider the increase on each product and set a price for it.
“The prices are adjusted based on the cost of the goods supplied or bought in the markets while presently, the buying power of shoppers are gradually decreasing from the sales record,” she stressed.
A shopper who refused to be identified lamented that a pack of noodles which was N7,500 a couple of days ago is now being sold for N10,000 in some stores which he said is absurd as he advocated for a consumer protection body that could do something about some of the seemingly outrageous prices of items…
