Poor hit hardest with price of foods

Despite price increases on basic goods consumers have had to endure over the last few months, Walter Sisulu University senior economic and business sciences lecturer Sookdhev Raj-karan said the situation was not as bad as people thought.

Rajkaran spent close to a year charting 45 randomly chosen grocery and basic household items in three different supermarkets and recording their price changes.

According to Rajkaran, while some items showed major increases, others surprisingly decreased, while some prices showed no change at all when compared month after month.

Included in the study are products such as oats, maize meal, sugar beans, eggs, bread, toothpaste and bleach.

The lecturer, who conducted the study between August 2014 and April this year, said it formed part of a marketing research project he had been working on since 1992.

“What I do is I track prices of certain goods on an annual basis and then I compile a report based on my findings,” he said.

“My reports usually compare prices between East London, Queenstown and Butterworth but this time I decided to focus specifically on East London.

“I visited three popular supermarkets and used the most popular products for the study.”

Examples of products which showed an increase are:

• Jungle Oats, which recorded a 33% increase;
• Maize meal 2.5kg by 29%;
• A dozen of large eggs by 9%;
• Aquafresh toothpaste 100ml by 42%;
• Sta-Soft fabric softner by 6%;
• Sliced brown bread by 12% and;
• White sugar 2.5kg by 12%.

Items which have decreased include:

• Sunlight dishwashing liquid 750 ml by 42%;
• Beef mince by 33%;
• Tomato sauce 700g by 21%; and
• Whole frozen chicken per kg by 31%.

Rajkaran said items which have showed no change include Jik bleach, frozen peas, Holsum fat and baked beans.

“My study shows that the poor are being hit the hardest with maize meal prices going up by a staggering 29%, eggs, sugar beans and bread by an average of 13%,” said Rajkaran.

Asked what advice he would give consumers, Rajkaran said: “Consumers should monitor prices of foods items they buy regularly and ‘vote’ with their feet when they notice large price increases.

“They should also buy with shopping lists.” — zisandan@dispatch.co.za