The Cyprus Consumers Association, as a matter of policy, is never satisfied. It always operates with the assumption that retailers have one objective – to deceive consumers into paying a higher price. For the association, all retailers and service providers must be viewed with suspicion because they are out to make a profit, which in the communist thinking of the people running it, is a terrible thing. The people who run it are unable to grasp the concept that without a profit the retailer would go bust.

It was therefore no surprise to see an announcement by the Consumers Association claiming that the e-kalathi, after six months of operation, to a large extent “failed to achieve its objectives.” The objectives of the e-kalathi, which lists the prices charged by different supermarkets for some 200 common goods, is to help consumers find the lowest priced products and to push down prices through competition. Instead, the association found there was a reduction in the difference of the total cost of the 200 products between the supermarket that charged the highest prices and that which charged the lowest.

This reduction, according to the association, “seems to be owed more to the increase of the prices of the supermarket with the lowest total cost and not to the reduction of the prices of the supermarket with the highest total cost.” In other words, the information offered by the e-kalathi service enabled supermarkets that were charging lower prices to increase them. The figures fully support this. In July, the price difference percentage between most expensive and cheapest was 13 per cent, in September 9.03 per cent and in November 5.8 per cent.

Admittedly, this was not what the commerce ministry had in mind when it introduced the e-kalathi, but daily information was bound to lead to a narrowing of the price differences between supermarkets. But the association provides no figures to back the claim that the more expensive supermarkets had not reduced their prices and the cheapest increased theirs. This is entirely possible, of course, because ‘prices’ are not the only factor in a consumer choosing a supermarket. It may be closer to their house, it may have products better displayed, it may have products others do not have, the checkouts are faster and so forth.

It is a fallacy to think that the e-kalathi would lead to an exodus from the most expensive supermarkets by consumers and thus force all prices of essential goods down. This was never going to happen, but e-kalathi remains and a very good tool for consumers who are price conscious and make a habit of looking for the lowest-priced goods. They benefit from it even if the price differences have been reduced.