RIYADH, 26 October 2003 — With sales increasing ahead of Ramadan, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has intensified its drive to check prices and prevent supermarkets from hoarding goods. “We have mobilized our entire team of 150 inspectors to conduct spot checks around the clock,” Deputy Minister of Commerce for Internal Trade Dr. Osama H. Abughararah told Arab News. He said the inspection team had been conducting random checks of supermarkets to make sure that food stocks were available and not being kept off the shelves in order to justify a price hike.
“We also check the expiry date and the price to protect the interest of consumers,” the deputy minister said, adding that the inspections had found the market for essential goods to be well-stocked.
Dr. Abughararah said the inspection team had also visited Makkah and Madinah, where pilgrims flock to perform Umrah and pray at the Prophet’s Mosque in Ramadan. Any attempt to inflate prices of foodstuffs and other consumer goods will be severely dealt with, he warned.
According to some consumers, discounts advertised in the media by some supermarkets are misleading since the supermarkets mark up the normal price and with the discount the price simply falls back to normal.
