Some retailers unhappy over price controls

By SIM LEOI LEOI

PUTRAJAYA: Some retailers have expressed unhappiness over the Government’s move to reduce the prices of goods, which have been on the rise after a pay increase for civil servants was announced.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal said these retailers had also complained that the Government was only helping hypermarket chains with its campaign to get consumers to buy cheaper goods.

“We are not helping the hypermarkets but the 26 million consumers in the country.

“There are certain retailers who are forced to sell their goods at a higher price due to their location at rural places but we should exercise our rights as consumers by avoiding those who are taking advantage of the situation.

“Many of these retailers claim the goods are being supplied to them at a higher price than previously. If this is the case, they should inform the ministry of it and we will help them get in contact with better suppliers,” he told reporters after a dialogue with industry players and non-governmental organisations here on Friday.

Shafie said he had also asked Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for agricultural production and output of fish and other seafood to be increased, so as to ensure prices remained stable.

Six hypermarket chains had recently pledged to reduce the prices of goods sold on their premises, with one even promising cuts on some 2,300 types of goods.

Shafie had also been quoted as saying that Malaysia was trying to woo other hypermarkets such as the American Wal-Mart and Metro AG from Germany to set up stores in the country.

There has been a ban on new foreign hypermarkets since 2002.

Shafie said the ministry was concerned that the recent approval in pay increase for civil servants would lead to similar demands by staff in the private sector, which would then lead to inflationary pressure on the prices of goods.

He also said it was time for Malaysian consumers to change their buying habits as some of the recent “shortages” were due to them going on a spree.

“It’s ridiculous for a country which produces palm oil to be short of cooking oil. Consumers were panicking and buying more cooking oil packs than they usually did because of rumours of such shortages,” he said.

Shafie said between May 21 and last Thursday, the ministry’s enforcement officers had conducted checks on 64,008 premises and received 107 complaints against errant traders.

“We have also confiscated goods totalling some RM95,038 and compounded RM136,230 in fines against errant traders,” he said.

[Source: The Star Malaysia Online]

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Me : Will this be another drama unfolded, one piece at a time? Before this, Pak Dollah stated about the 'naik gaji' and COLA for gov't staffs. After that, Dato' Shafie Apdal (if I am correct, or was it Pak Dollah himself) saying that there won't be any goods' price increment. Then, a shallow voice came from the Gang2 Kedai Mamak (actually I forgot their real association name, someone could help me with that) about price-increment-gonna-be-soon at their stalls. The gov't then said this is not allowed, and the Gang2 Kedai Mamak rep. agreed and tried to compromise. The gov't then started looking for stalls selling Iced Milo at RM1.80 and other stuff with outstandingly increasing prices. Then came the retailers unhappy about the price control. Finally, perhaps, it would be like this : Due to the unhappiness of the retailers and stall-keepers, the government decided to raise up the prices of goods in Malaysia, but not to worry, the price is still control.

Yeah. That might be a logical ending in soap-opera-based country like Malaysia. There's just too much dramas in the TVs that the government is making their own drama, the only thing differs that their dramas affected our lives.

This must come to end. The 'naik gaji' thing is not a really relevant thing to do. Why did I say this? First of all, only the government staffs will enjoy this. This would come to a greater unbalance and rift between the races in Malaysia, especially the Malay-Chinese-India trio. Everyone knows that the government staffs comprises of mainly Malays. There are of course other races too, but to be compared with Bumi staffs, there would still be quite a large gap.

Secondly, price controlling could be bad for small shops. Hey, not only that they needed to fight with hypermarkets such as Tesco and Carrefour (and perhaps coming soon hyppies in Malaysia such as Walmart). This would of course give an advantage to the hypermarkets if the prices is kept low. Maybe the government would say that with lower prices, the customers would have a better choice in choosing between small sundry shops and hypermarkets. Still, customers will tend to go to hypermarket for their well-known establishment around the world. Thus, a price increase is perhaps needed by the shop owners to cover up their losses.

The next thing in mind is the fear of western globalisation. As per said in the previous paragraph, there would be a big advantage for the hypermarkets if the prices are controlled. Thus, what will happen to small sundry shops at the corner lots? Most of them will eventually cease to exist, as the earnings from their regular customers are just not good enough to keep them on the market. This will eventually leads up to great domination of hypermarkets, capitalisation at our own border. Instead of nurturing young entreprenuers, we will end up to producing workers for western entreprenuers. Yes, we still have Giant and so on, but the numbers are not as much as small sundry shops.

Sometimes it is not just about the customers. Yes, commonly customers are always right, but are they if their action ends up only in giving a big economic boom to outsiders, and throwing over a 'You sell your stuff too high la! Cut down price la!' round object to the shop owners without knowing that the round object is actually a hand grenade, which will eventually 'kills' the shop owners.