Traditional restaurants in Jeddah have provoked the ire of their customers by maintaining prices despite significant fall in the cost of frozen meat and chicken. “The price of chicken and meat has gone down by between 30 and 50 percent, yet they still charge consumers the same old prices,” says Bandar Al-Attawi, a student at King Abdulaziz University. “The funny thing is they reply by saying that the price of rice is still high, but of course meat and chicken have nothing to do with rice and most of what they serve is made up of meat and chicken!” Bandar says restaurants still charge SR14 to SR16 for a chicken while the retail price of a frozen Brazilian chicken is no more than SR60 a carton which normally contains 10 pieces . Restaurant worker Ali Abdul Rahman says, “I admit that the price of frozen chicken and meat has come down, but what our customers don't understand is that we don't only serve chicken but also other things like salad and bread. We buy these things, so they have to pay for it.” “The rise in food prices was connected with an increase in rents,” Ali continues. “Landlords increased rents, and rice traders increased their prices. All these factors should be taken into consideration.” Muhammed Iqbal also works in a traditional restaurant in Jeddah. “We reduced the price of grilled chicken from 16 to 14 riyals, but we didn't lower the price of the rice because it is still high. And restaurants do not just deal with meat and chicken, we also have a long list of other food items, and we also have to cover other expenses such as rent, staff salaries, gas and electricity,” he said. “We don't force anyone to buy from us,” says Ali Saleh, a restaurant cashier. “We serve good food dishes and I don't think this trivial price increase is deserving of such a fuss. You may find prices lower than ours, but this is often at the expense of hygiene.” Assim Ali, manager of a grilled meat restaurant, said: “Meat is not the only thing we serve. There are also appetizers and salad and so on. We also have rent to pay and salaries and other unforeseeable expenditures are involved,” he said.
