Local grocery shoppers will hopefully make use of Government’s consumer goods price comparisons in Tuesday’s paper. An announcement earlier this month that these controls would continue and be expanded was welcomed in this column at the time.
Of course, the list regarded only 10 of the many food stores on the Dutch side, but the aim is to gradually target a wider range of super- and minimarkets than before. That is fine, as long as they obviously don’t know when will be their turn.
While 45 items were mentioned in this case, the plan is to check about 300 products by creating eight categories of which one is to be surveyed during each reporting period. In April that was meat and seafood, while for May it was canned goods.
This seems like a practical approach, as long as the businesses in question aren’t made aware of the month’s theme beforehand, which would allow them to only lower certain prices temporarily and manipulate the results. It is one thing to be open, but some things are better kept confidential.
It could be argued that publishing prices of May 10 and 11 almost two weeks later means these may have been changed meanwhile. However, a bit of time is obviously needed to process the information and present it in an organised manner.
One aspect that should not be overlooked is the so-called “basket of basic necessities” for which maximum prices have been set. In Curaçao a minimarket was recently closed for violating a similar regulation there repeatedly despite several warnings, clearly indicating a need for enforcement in this matter.
