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Prices hiked only by small groceries, says official

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Prices hiked only by small groceries, says official

Ministry of Economy official inspects store in Abu Dhabi; expresses satisfaction with Ramadan arrangements.

Published: Mon 14 Jul 2014, 10:57 PM

Updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 9:45 PM

The Ministry of Economy has been receiving over 100 complaints daily since the advent of Ramadan and 25 per cent of them are about increase in the prices of food items.

“In most cases, the small grocery shops increased the prices. There are no such violations in supermarkets,” said Dr Hashim Al Nuaimi, director of consumer protection department at the ministry.

Throughout Ramadan, Dr Nuaimi and his team inspect major supermarkets, and see to it that they comply with the requirements the ministry has laid down for them, especially during the holy month.

On Sunday, Dr Nuaimi who toured Carrefour Deerfields in Bahia near Abu Dhabi, said: “I’m very happy as everything I asked for is in place here. They have a charity campaign, Ramadan promotions, everything is labelled clearly and there is no increase in prices,” Dr Nuaimi told Khaleej Times.

He, however, did request that the supermarket increase its number of TV screens advertising consumer rights and the consumer complaints number given by the ministry from one to at least nine. Also, he asked for the monitors to be bigger than the 30-inch screen put up by Carrefour Deerfields.

Carrefour Deerfields, that was expecting the inspection by the misnistry officials, looked its best on Sunday. Shelves were full and looked neat, fresh food counters were also well presented. The store went the extra mile with its shop assistants even offering advice on serving certain food products.

Branch management representatives claimed they are not allowed to speak with the media, but said this particular Carrefour, the latest to open in Abu Dhabi, has the best quality meat and fish, with some customers preferring to come here for these products rather than the 60 kilometres away Marina Mall Carrefour.

“Some products are cheaper here than in Marina Mall Carrefour. This 20kg bag of Indian rice is for Dh199 here, but the same bag sells for Dh210 there,” said one Emirati shopper, who stopped to speak with Dr Nuaimi during the inspection.

Meat, dairy and fresh food departments in general were the first priority of the ministry officials, who did not find any violations committed by the store.

Altogether, Carrefour Deerfields has 120 items with prices locked during Ramadan and weekly sales of 20 to 40 per cent on anything between 40 to 60 products.

“They are also doing a very good charity campaign. They are selling a food basket that comprises about 25 food items, including rice, tinned vegetables and cooking oil for Dh98.35. The customers buy the food basket and donate it to a special counter that would distribute the baskets to the needy,” explained Dr Nuaimi.

The charity campaign is done in collaboration with the Red Crescent organisation, that sends its volunteers daily after Iftar to collect the food baskets. So far about 200 such baskets have been donated.

For this Ramadan, the Ministry of Economy has launched three more initiatives to make sure consumers’ rights are respected. The first one is called ‘consumer inspector’, where every customer can become a supermarket inspector; the second is place big screens advertising consumers’ rights as per the ministry’s guidelines throughout the supermarket; and lastly introducing more electronic price-checking machines that allow shoppers to check the price of any product by scanning it. -silvia@khaleejtimes.com



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