Monday,
July 28, 2008
Italians Devise Device to Fight Rising Food
Prices
The
ANNOTICO Report
A text messaging
service set up by the Italian government is helping its citizens to haggle on
their high food street prices.
What a great idea
for the
Italians Dial Up
Best Food Price
BBC World Service
July 27, 2008
By Alka
Marwaha
text messaging
service set up by the Italian government is helping its citizens to haggle on
their high street.
The rising cost
of food is a growing concern for many people across the world.
There have been
protests, and even riots, in countries including
However, if
Italians feel that their local food retailer is charging unreasonable prices,
they can now call on a new service to help them haggle or walk away.
After a few seconds you
will receive an SMS that will tell you the different prices in the different
areas of
Luca Di Maio, Consumer
Federation,
Thanks
to a short message service (SMS) text system set up jointly by the Italian agriculture
ministry and consumer associations, shoppers can check the average price of
different foods in northern, central and southern
With prices spiralling out of control in some parts of the world, some
people feel that it is high time consumers could check just how much traders
are profiting.
Luca Di Maio is a consultant for the Consumer Federation in
"After a few
seconds you will receive an SMS that will tell you the different prices in the
different areas of
Trading
tomatoes
BBC reporter Emma
Wallis from BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme
decided to find out how much 2kg of tomatoes cost in a market in
She found that
the wholesale price of a kilo of cherry tomatoes is 69 euro cents (54p).
Whereas the
retail price in the north is 2.9 euros, in central
We are in a free market
and consumers should be able to buy or not buy, or go around and check for
better prices
Luca Di Maio
By
contrast, for bigger tomatoes the wholesale price is 62 cents compared with
2.15 euros in the north, 1.85 euros
in central and 1.50 euros in the south.
However, the
tomatoes are bought by the wholesalers for only 22 cents a kilo from the
farmers.
Mr Di Maio
explains that the problem facing Italian shoppers is that there are a large
number of traders and prices can vary hugely between them.
He explains that
the price checking system is there to let the consumer know and understand the
pricing dynamics of the market, and make a more informed choice.
"We are in a
free market and consumers should be able to buy or not buy, or go around and
check for better prices", he adds.
Dealer's
prices
Emma Wallis hit
the streets of
Markets are more
efficient when you have got more information
Tom Standage,
Economist magazine
"I've
heard about this line and I think it's a great idea" said one woman,
adding that everyone puts the prices they feel like putting.
"If you
stroll down this market for instance, there are courgettes
for two euros, 2.5 euros
and 1.5 euros, you never know which ones to
choose", she adds.
Another woman
explains that she would be interested in using the price checking service, but
only in certain situations.
"I do my
shopping pretty quickly but I do try and check prices when I can. But I trust
this stall holder so I wouldn't really need it here," she says.
But she was not
sure she would use the service for shops.
In perspective
According to Tom Standage, business editor at The Economist magazine,
markets are more efficient when you have more information.
"If you are
in a supermarket and there's a price for tomatoes and that's the only piece of
information you have, you've got no idea whether you should be protesting by
not buying it," he says.
He explains that
for supply and demand to work at its best, consumers need to be able to compare
different prices from suppliers on the spot, something the texting service and
others like it should help make easier.
"There are
even services where you can scan a barcode in with your mobile phone and it
tells you how much the internet retailers are selling a particular product
for," he says.
If a price is too
high, people will not buy the product and the trader will have to drop it, he
adds.
With many
analysts warning that high food costs are here to stay, Italian consumer are
unlikely to be the only ones hoping to find the High Street's best prices.
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