I was a lot around lately. I spoke with lots of people: relatives, friends, and friends of friends. We had a chat mostly over a cup of coffee. Maybe with a doughnut or a cup cake. We didn’t meet over lunch or dinner. Because we are all aware of the hard days we live in nowadays and we will live in the future. Hard days in terms of being able to cover basic expenses like food, electricity and heating. And pay someway, somehow the loads of taxes.
“Did you see that? Prices in supermarkets went up!” Maria started the prices conversation while Eleni, Dora and me were secretly thinking “Oh, not again!” Dora and I had promised to each other to avoid unpleasant issues like prices, money shortage and heating. But it was impossible. These are the issues that worry every Greek household nowadays. Not talking about them is impossible.
Mary complained about packages of butter that have shrunk from 250gr down to 200gr, but the price remained the same: €3. Dairy products packages have shrunk long time ago, yogurt is down to 200gr, for example and so did packages of toast bread and cereals and washing powder.
Maria, mother of two, was surprised beginning of the school season to see that she got less sandwiches for her kids although the bought the same size package. So she thought. What was real was that Maria was paid the same price but had got less content.
“I miss five slices of bread in every package and yet I pay the same price,” she said quite upset. Maria is in fact angry about the butter prices because she will not be able to bake her favorite Christmas cookies “kourampiedes” this year due to the butter prices. “Melomakarona, darling, just melomakarona!” she almost shouted. While Kourampiedes are based on butter, Melomakarona have no dairy products at all. “With sugar- instead of honey-sirup and very very finely chopped walnuts. My family will find walnut powder on them. Τhe time of bite-size walnuts is over,” she heralded.
I told my friends laughing about my experience with this brand name chocolate powder I use for my breakfast cereals. After years of using it, my hand has saved the sense of the bag weight. I was indeed surprised last week, to see the bag had the same size but the feeling was it was much lighter. Indeed: there was a space on top of the bag but filled with air. And more shocking, instead of normally 500gr, the sweet cocoa powder inside was just 400 gr, bought for the same old price.
Dora told us about the supermarket in her neighborhood and why she does her weekly groceries somewhere else now. She had realized that the price tags at the fresh meat counter proved to have 5-6 euro difference form the price tags coming from the scale after the meat was weighed.
“I had bought a kilo of beef, I saw 11 euro per kilo on the price tag but at I home I saw I was charged with 16 euro per kilo. I went back to the super, complained to the manager. “Sorry, an awful mistake,” the manager said and gave her her money back. But few days later, the same mistake happened. This time the victim was fresh chicken. Nobody in that store felt responsible for the price difference: neither the butcher, nor the manager “Sorry, mistake, mistake,” they said. “Mistake once, mistake twice, shame on them and I will never put my feet in this supermarket again,” Dora assured us.
We all know this supermarket and we’re surprised about what it seems to be either an idiotic manager or a plain trick to cheat on the customers.
Our friend Eleni nicely summed up the examples we were throwing through the air. “You know what? Since a couple of weeks I spend 15-20 euro more per week for groceries buying the same items. Where shall I find 80 euro more per month, at the same time I need some extra hundreds to heat my home?”
Eleni buys her weekly groceries in three different supermarkets, trying to pick the best discounts.
“Shame! Endless shame for the supermarkets, the producers, the state that is unable to hold the prices. A shame for all, while our incomes dramatically decreased and keep decreasing because prices skyrocket,” Maria added.
I know, I don’t need to count every example where the package has shrank but the price remained the same. And it’s not just the multinational companies following this practice since summer 2012, when suddenly all detergents contained 60 measures of washing powder instead of 70. And it is not a Greeks only phenomenon. the same occurs in Germany much to my knowledge and most probably in other countries too.
The problem is that also local producers apply this norm with the effect that packed products occupy less space in our fridges and pantries, while they dig bigger holes in our wallets.
Are Maria, Eleni, Dora and me I grumpy because we have to live on a budget?
The Institute of National Confederation of Greek Commerce confirmed our daily observations with statistics today:
“Despite the negative inflation ( -2.9 % ) recorded by the Hellenic Statistical Authority for the fifth consecutive month in November, prices of basic goods increased,” the INCGC said in a statement after a research:
Milk and eggs are up by 1.7%
Raw beef is up 2.1%
Fresh potatoes +4.5%
Electricity +18.7%
Medicine +25.3%
If I’m not mistaken Greek Health Minister has repeatedly claimed that he has brought down the drugs prices. Oh wait! He also brought down the percentage rate the social security funds are paying for the drugs.
Underhand price increases everywhere 🙁
PS And you know what? I’m fed up writing about the same stuff all of the time.
Ops! Look what I found!
Pack sizes shrink but prices remain the same.
Food manufacturers and supermarkets have been accused of using “underhand” tactics by shrinking their pack sizes but not lowering their prices. (Full Article)
I always go to Lidl for my shopping. The milk there is 0.94 per liter and is good quality, most of the other brands are 1.15 per liter + and the cheap supermarket brands taste like water.
I agree with you about the price changes and size changes, one must be very careful shopping, but if you have patience you can find very good deals around.
you have to do a lot of walking around, from supermarket to supermarket, so to say. And believe me without a car it’s a difficult task. or if you’re old and fragile.
But of course KTG, this is necessary! Did you not hear our friends of the OECD proclaiming that the next crisis for Greece is coming down the tracks rapidly, because the prices are TOO LOW? We haven’t even finished with this crisis yet, and they’ve already dreamed up the next one… Let’s throw in a few bits of intelligent sounding jargon like “primary surplus” and “deflationary pressures”, if not “turning corners” and seeing “lights at the end of tunnels”, and surely we must understand that this is seriously and must be tackled immediately! How? well, obviously by making poor Maria’s Eleni’s, Dora’s etc, even poorer, and expecting them to not really notice or mind. It is after all for our own good you know?.
It’s known as a hiden price rise, as the ONLY way to fend off the next crisis. With of course the happy side effect that those producing the same packages but putting less in them actually make more money. And isn’t that what it really is all about? More and more, and more and more. the God of more is never satified, he never has a full belly. Not even when you and I end up with an empty wallet. then, he’ll want the lining…
I can donate to the greedy ones my summer shorts and a pair of flip flops – just for the shake of the flip-flop they make.