JEDDAH: As the holy month of Ramadan draws near, supermarkets are slashing prices and offering Ramadan bargains.

However, many supermarkets have restricted the sale of bargain items to one or two.

According to Mohammed Ali, in charge of customer service at the Rubwa district branch of Bin Dawood supermarket, the restrictions have been put because local grocery store owners buy such items in bulk and sell them in their stores at normal prices.

“The special offers are meant for ordinary customers, not grocery store owners,” he said.

Bin Dawood has restricted the sale of bargain items to three per customer. Other supermarkets have restricted the sale of such items to only two.

“It is a lot cheaper to buy bargain items from supermarkets than from wholesale distributors and that is why many grocery store owners come here to buy goods,” said Ali.

The employee of a supermarket in Al-Ruwais district said he and his colleagues easily recognize grocery store owners. “These guys send their relatives and friends so that they are not recognized. As a result, we have put a cap on the number of items a customer can take,” he added.

A grocery store owner in Al-Baghdadiah, who asked his name not be published, said he buys special-offer products and then sells them at regular prices. He added he sees nothing wrong in what he does. “After I buy the products from the supermarket it becomes my property and it’s my business what I do with them,” he said. “Supermarkets are huge and have a lot of customers. They can afford to sell at bargain prices,” he added.

Um Waleed, a housewife in the Al-Baghdadiah district, buys most of her daily foodstuff from grocery stores and not from supermarkets. “I can’t go to the supermarket every day. It’s easier to visit the nearby grocery store,” she said.

Omar Abdullah, who has a family of seven, said he is always on the lookout for special offers to save money and that he often needs to buy two or three items of one product. “However, I can’t do this anymore. It’s very inconvenient because it means I’ll have to either visit two different supermarkets or the same supermarket twice if I want to go home with the right amount of supplies that my family needs,” he said.