Govt briefs consumers

In the process it has demonstrated that the country’s cost of living has been subject to the pricing policies of many supermarkets, perhaps acting on the capitalist principle of what the market can stand.

In turn, it has shown that contrary to the popularly held view that food and grocery prices in Tobago are considerably higher than in Trinidad because they have been adversely affected by additional shipping costs from Port-of-Spain to Scarborough, many of the prices charged by supermarkets there not only compare favourably with those obtaining in Trinidad, but in some cases are somewhat lower than those at some supermarkets in Port-of-Spain and other areas in Trinidad. The Government consumer relations initiative, the responsibility of the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Consumer Affairs Division, has shown that while prices varied in say Port-of- Spain or San Fernando or Chaguanas and Freeport, they differed greatly in the high population density areas along the entire East-West Corridor, with modestly populated Toco having the highest prices in some instances.

Why has it been necessary, for example, for a food staple, rice (parboiled), carrying the same brand name, to be offered for sale on supermarket shelves in Port-of-Spain and Diego Martin/Petit Valley at prices ranging from $11.99 to $12.99 for a 2kg pack, a difference of one dollar? But as relatively high as that differential is, yet in Cumana/Toco, the same name brand and weight of rice has retailed at one outlet for $14.00 and at another for $12.67! If the argument is one of add-on costs of transport, then why the disparity of $1.33? Meanwhile, the same parboiled rice can be had in San Juan/Barataria for $12.25; $11.99 in Curepe, St Augustine and Tunapuna; between $11.09 and $12.99 in Arima; $12.99 in Rio Claro and Mayaro and in Central Trinidad between $12.50 and $12.95, dropping in Siparia to $10.99!

If I have emphasised parboiled rice it is because as I pointed out earlier, rice is a staple. But there were other items with varying gaps in pricing - Milo (300g) was sold in some areas in North-West Trinidad from $14.29 to $16.99; a brand of laundry detergent (400g) from $6.85 to $8.35, and in Tobago from $6.70 to $7.95; table margarine (240g) from $3.60 to $4.85 in North West Trinidad, $2.99 to $4.00 in South Trinidad, $3.70 to $5.00 in Cumana/Toco and $3.95 to $5.70 in Tobago. Meawhile, 2kg bags of prepackaged flour bore price tags of $6.49 to $7.45 in North West Trinidad; $7.49 and $8.60 in Scarborough; in Cumana/Toco — $7.50, and in Rio Claro/Mayaro — from $7.99 to $8.99!

The Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Legal Affairs should be complimented on presenting consumers with a breakdown in food and grocery prices, however limited. Nonetheless, it should go further the next time it seeks to sensitise the public on supermarket shelf prices in their specific areas, and publish the landed cost of a wide range of imported food and other grocery items. This was standard practice in the early 1950s, when such costs were published regularly in the then Royal Gazette. This was discontinued following an article in 1952 which drew a condemnatory reaction from the powerful merchant class in Trinidad and Tobago. Additionally, Government should publish in the same pullout dealing with retail prices for basic food and grocery items the charges for freight transport between Port-of-Spain and Scarborough on the Government inter island ferry service.

What Government has done is among the several consumer rights issues for which the late Mrs. Vera Braithwaite, founder of the now defunct Consumers’ Association of Trinidad and Tobago, had fought long and hard to achieve. Mrs. Braithwaite has been often referred to as the Ralph Nader of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, although in many respects she had been in advance of the internationally famous crusader for consumers. It was the United States born and based Nader, who is credited as having stated what, in a larger sense, could be applicable to Trinidad and Tobago: “In this nation, where the ultimate power is said to rest with the people, it is clear that a free and prompt flow of information from Government to the people is essential.” The Government is seemingly intent on pursuing a course of a free and needed flow of information for the nation’s consumers with its publication of advice on food and grocery prices for the week ending July 8, 2006. Vera Braithwaite, the fearless defender of consumers’ rights, would have been proud.