EDITOR – You’ll surely have noticed the ever-more dramatic warnings on radio and TV to expect increases in food prices.
The adjectives have grown increasingly shrill, from ‘serious increases’ to ‘huge’ to ‘massive’ to ‘rocketing’, which your oh-so-benevolent food retailers (bar none) have been incredibly swift to apply – unless you think a pocket of potatoes at R87 (last week R49), a cabbage at R17 (last week R10), a lettuce at R25 (last week R9) and, forgive me for omitting the ubiquitous and ludicrous 99c tacked on to each price for good measure – are anything but ‘rocketing’ increases. And the examples of these ‘massive’ (and I submit, somewhat suspect) increases are across the board, as I’m sure you’ll agree.
Here’s a question, have you noticed any shortage of produce? No? Me neither.
The basic tenet of capitalism is supply and demand, and where there’s a shortage in supply, demand will occasion higher prices. But with no apparent shortages there seems to be something else afoot here. The oh-so-swift response by retailers to hysterical media warnings smacks of something odd. Does the word ‘collusion’ spring to mind? Nor, I believe, having been conditioned to outrageous price escalations, will we ever see reductions to more tolerable levels. We live in interesting times indeed.
Harry Stottle
Kloof
