MADINAH, 22 October 2006 — The prices of sweets in shops are increasing dramatically with the approach of Eid. Sweet-shop owners are taking advantage of customers by increasing their prices, knowing that the customers will not refuse to buy since sweets are an important part of Eid in Madinah.
Many shop owners say that their profits have tripled this season.
It is a tradition in Madinah that in every house there must be sweets for the three days of Eid. House owners greet guests with sweets and traditional Arabic coffee.
Arab News visited a number of sweet shops in the city in order to have a look at what is going on before Eid. To begin with, we met customers who expressed their resentment at the price increases during the last days of Ramadan.
Some accused the shop owners of doubling prices.
Musleh, a shopper, said, “Why is the Ministry of Commerce not interfering to put an end to these price increases? We read in the papers that they would launch teams to monitor prices in the local market. What we see here is that the ministry does not know what is happening in its own backyard. Shop owners are increasing their prices on their whims. We suffer a lot and the ministry should step in to protect the consumer.”
Um Muhammad said that sweets were consuming a large part of her Eid budget. She said, “We limited income people cannot tolerate such increases in prices. The increases mean that we cannot buy some of the things we want. There should be some monitoring.”
A shop owner, Humaidan, said that Eid was a season for selling sweets. He said shop owners take advantage of the season since their business is slack for the rest of the year.
“There are popular brands of sweets that cost from SR100 to SR200 per kilo. Locally-produced sweets range from SR10 to SR70 per kilo. As for the price increases, it may be up to 70 percent rather than the 200 percent that many people talk about,” Humaidan explained.
