Saudi Arabia's nascent Consumer Protection Society (CPS) appears to have given up in the face of its first major challenge. “We don't know the solution for this greed by merchants,” said CPS Chairman Dr. Muhammad Al-Hamad when asked what could be done to bring prices of food and other essential commodities down from their peaks of the past couple of years. All he had to offer was an appeal to the authorities concerned to take action to bring prices down. Unlike in the rest of the world where prices have dropped as a result of the global economic crisis, nothing has changed on this score in Saudi Arabia, said consumers surveyed here for their opinions. Most of the discounts are on commodities whose expiry dates are almost over, said Randa Al-Johani, who was out shopping for groceries. She did not discern any real drop in prices. “If there are discounts, they are promotional offers for a limited period on some commodities in large stocks with the merchants.” Umm Tala, another Saudi woman, poured scorn on how merchants try to justify price hikes by pointing to global inflation, the low exchange rate of the dollar, and what not. “When prices rise, they skyrocket suddenly but when they fall, the decrease is so gradual it's unnoticeable.” She said the old excuse of costlier imports because of a low dollar rate is no longer valid today. “When the cause disappears, the prices should decrease, but experience has shown us that here, they do not decrease.” Shopper Hasan Sangouf suggested that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry form committees to look into introducing price bands so that merchants make reasonable profits and not exorbitant gains as is the case now. Several others agreed that the consumer in Saudi Arabia is totally at the mercy of the merchants who hike prices at every opportunity but do not lower them when the reasons for the increase disappear. Now, the merchants say that despite the drop in prices worldwide, they must hold up the price line because they have warehouses full of commodities bought at high prices. Contradictory excuses One Jeddah shopper, Raed Jibran, noted how the merchants come up with contradictory excuses. For example, when the government announced subsidies on rice and milk, the importers immediately demanded that the subsidies cover commodities imported earlier, as they had stocks enough for six months. Yet, when import costs rise, these very merchants do not talk about the quantities they have stocked up at lower prices. CPS Chairman Dr. Al-Hamad, when asked what his society can possibly do to rectify the situation, replied that CPS has raised the very same question with the authorities concerned.
