The unrealistic increase in food prices, even up to 30 percent, led the National Consumer Organization of Serbia to call on citizens to boycott large market chains throughout the country for three days.
"The call to boycott hypermarkets will be applied to all large retail chains that unscrupulously, abusing the increase in value added tax (VAT), used it to significantly increase the prices of items for the most widespread consumption," the Serbian organization's call to consumers states.
Recently, the VAT in Serbia was increased from 18 to 20 percent, and "probable cartel agreements and the monopoly position of large retail chains in Serbia made all hypermarkets raise the prices of most consumer products by up to 30 percent."
Yesterday Maxi and Tempo stores were boycotted, today it's Idea's turn, and tomorrow Merkator and Mercator Roda.
In particular, they pointed out that the price of basic food items, on which the VAT rate remained unchanged, also increased in price. This, they believe, further threatened the very low standard of citizens and showed the unscrupulous face of profiteers.
"We, the consumers of Serbia, by abstaining from shopping for three days, remind that hypermarkets live off us, the consumers. It was enough that because of the drought, the price of sea fish is rising in this country, that a two percent difference is counted as 30, and that all of this passes silently. Because we consumers know how to count, we know how to count, and we learned all that while counting change from our pockets to make ends meet," the announcement states.
Boycotting stores as a way of protecting the rights of consumers, who can only bring awareness to insatiable traders through an organized protest, is known in Western countries, but not in the Balkans.
For this reason, the president of the Center for Consumer Protection (CEZAP) Olga Nikčević assessed that she doubts that the boycott will succeed in Serbia because she believes that their consumers, as well as Montenegrin ones, have not yet understood the importance of consumer protection, that is, themselves.
"It's a great idea, but only in a country where you have conscious consumers who are ready to boycott producers and traders who cheat them. The offer is diverse enough that you don't even have to shop in hypermarkets, especially not for a few days," said Nikčević.
If the boycott in Serbia were to succeed, Nikčević claims, the sellers would "scratch well", but he believes that it is not good to try something that is doomed to failure.
"Boycott is an excellent weapon in developed countries. A few years ago in Greece, operators raised the prices of telephone calls, the consumer association called on citizens not to pick up the phone for a day. The whole nation listened to them and the prices were returned to their old values the next day," said Nikčević.
In our country, they laugh when they call for a boycott
Nikčević expects that the attempt of her colleagues from Serbia will be a "pointless shot", as was the case with CEZAP's a few years ago.
Then, Nikčević recalled, they tried to animate citizens to boycott bakeries and their products in order to force them to give up the practice of blackmailing the price of bread. "We said that flour should be bought and bread prepared at home for a period of time, and that would not be terrible, but the bakers would be harmed.
Instead of receiving support, we were the object of ridicule," said Nikčević.
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