One month after the launch of the official Fair Prices programme, supermarkets are starting with the implementation of fixed prices for 120 days for a basket of 1,967 consumer goods. So far there have been no violations in the quoted prices, but they are there there is a lack of products, especially some delicate ones such as oil, sugar, pasta and flour. Depending on the chains, the offer is 50% or 60%, depending on the outlets.
As usual, the showcase of the country is the city of Buenos Airesand for this reason, most of the supermarkets in the area have floor signs prepared by the Secretariat of Commerce.
The weak point of the plan, as was Precios Cuidados, is the offer, according to a tour made by Clarín in a handful of supermarkets in the North area. For this reason, the secretary in charge of Matias Tombolini had her meager staff of inspectors at her disposal to pass through the gondolas and sanction non-compliance.
For now there are no recalls because the degree of compliance – at least on the price issue – is 100%, said sources of that portfolio that has AMBA surveys. As for the stock of available products the level is at 60%, according to the same source. “But in a few days it will be fixed,” they predict. This will happen, according to the same official source, of the supplier companies access the dollars promised by the government as an advance to finance the importation of inputs.
Meanwhile, the Commerce Secretary continues to sign deals with major industries, including Arcor, Molinos, Queruclor, Mastellone, P&G and Unilever, among others.
Some delays in the implementation have to do with the preparation of the “supermarket baskets”, they explained in the Secretariat. This implies that the number of products varies according to the size of the store. An “espresso” format (smaller venues) has fewer items with staggered prices than a hypermarket, for instance.
For supermarkets, among the first to sign the agreement organized by the Secretary of Commerce, the plan is “advancing” while acknowledging that the sword of Damocles, as happened with Precios Cuidados, is guarantee supply. This is why they aim not to neglect the gondolas, they assure, since they are the ones who risk being penalized for deficiencies.
Precisely, the contribution strategy own brand products, This was done on behalf of the chains, not only to promote a higher volume of this type of product but also “to ensure that the gondola is always stocked”, commented an industry source. Of the more than 1,900 products on the programme, around 700 correspond to the supermarkets’ own brands.. With which, each chain has no more than 1000 products availableestimated an industry source.
“Currently, the offer level reaches 50 or 60%”, commented the director of one of the chains that joined the agreement. “There’s still a shortage, but it’s better than what we had with Precios Cuidados, when the level of stock available to consumers didn’t reach 45%,” he explained.
For his part, Juan Pablo Quiroga, director of institutional relations of ChangoMas, underlined the situation of the program: “we are implementing everything since two weeks all over the country. And we have had inspections, especially in the AMBA area,” she said.
Meanwhile, from Coto, they also assured that the plan “is being implemented without major inconveniences on our part, beyond some well-defined problems”, confides a source in the chain led by the entrepreneur Alfredo Coto. He also commented that “signage is placed in different provinces, although mainly in the area of the city of Buenos Aires”.
The signage – where the text in white letters on a blue background predominates – is made up of a billboard with the complete list of products at the supermarket entrance, “aerial” billboards and the prices posted on the gondolas.
“There have been quite a few inspections in the last week and a half, all over the country but especially in the AMBA,” commented another supermarket who asked not to be named. “What they question more than anything else is when there are shortages from suppliers”. In this sense, some basic foods are the most complicated, such as oils, pastes and flours, he pointed.
Why does this happen? “Because the price difference with Chinese shops and supermarkets is very large. And this causes the supplier to prioritize the delivery of more products to neighborhood shops or supermarkets, to which he can sell up to 45% more in price,” explained one supermarket.
This trend is reflected in the statistics: the supermarket’s participation has grown compared to the Chinese wholesaler or self-service mainly due to the price differential. Furthermore, the data shows that the areas that are growing the most are girls. because they compete with smaller firms.
The Ministry of the Economy is taking note of this issue, which has decided to include wholesale companies (through the CADAM sector chamber) in the Fair Prices agreement. “The idea is to establish a price path so that shops that get their supplies from the wholesaler (including Chinese ones) can buy at better prices, recognized in the official portfolio. On the other hand, the initiative has to do with the fact that it is a segment (wholesalers and traditional shops) which concentrates 60% of the total sales volume, and it is difficult to control because it is very fragmented.
In this sense, for the officials, the Fair Prices app – with which the consumer can check if the goods and the prices are correctly displayed in the gondolas) is a weapon to better check compliance with the programme. Here because, a strong investment in technology would have been announced in the next few days so that – faced with the scarce possibilities of the inspectors – people track program compliance more through the application.
In another of the supermarkets they commented that “the most delicate part of the program will surely be We will see in January and February. “Because unscheduled products can’t go up more than 4% a month. But those who are in, in the third and fourth months will be far behind (between 12 and 16% below the rest) with which, “There will be a lot of pressure on the programme. And above all of its continuity”.ventured the source.
After Sergio Massa was hired at the Ministry of the Economy, the implementation of the Right Prices Plan was conceived as a commitment to gradually lower inflation. The products of mass consumption were joined by other goods, such as clothing, footwear, tourism and even the metallurgical industry. In November, the price index aims to rise below October, around 6%. Even if the annual evolution is just under 100%.
NS
Source: Clarin
