Russian grocery stores found to be plumping up prices
Source: The Guardian
Investigations reveal shops making unjustified price increases such as cabbage up by 353% following state ban on import of western foods
Tuesday 27 January 2015 15.20 GMT
Investigations of grocery stores across Russia that were ordered by the prosecutor general have revealed unjustified price increases following a ban on imported foods adopted in response to western sanctions.
Prosecutors in the Samara region found that between August and December 2014, the price of cabbage, cucumbers and peppers increased by 353%, 544% and 654%, respectively, the newspaper RBC Daily reported. The Russian staple buckwheat, which is often used as a kind of social barometer as consumers tend to stockpile it in anticipation of hard times, rose by 276%.
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Prices began to rise across Russia following a ban on most food imports from the EU, US, Australia, Canada and Norway, which president Vladimir Putin ordered in August in response to western sanctions over Russias role in the Ukraine crisis. In big cities like Moscow, up to three-quarters of food was estimated to be imported.
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But some retailers apparently took advantage of shared economic woes to make an even tidier profit. In response to reports of speculation, the prosecutor general, Yury Chaika, in January ordered checks of price tags for socially significant goods and other documents at retail chains in all regions of Russia. Although price rises in Samara were especially egregious, an investigation in the Bryansk region found that several big retailers there had marked up products even though suppliers had not increased their prices.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/russian-grocery-stores-inflate-prices-after-import-ban
newthinking
(3,982 posts)It happens here too (like our gas stations).
Not sure what is going on in the Samara region, but in the oblasts I have relatives in the prices rose but in line with what you might expect.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)newthinking
(3,982 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)I noticed on google street view, Russia fields are loaded with watermelon, potatoes and you guessed it.. lots of cabbage, cucumbers and peppers
can also notice on russias street view (last years) trees along the one road to ukraine marked with fresh white paint all the way, couple hundred miles to wards the Ukraine border.
And you pass hundreds of fields of home grown crops, with large gunnys & boxes of picked vegetables ready for the troops to take to their war against Ukraine or perhaps to send to russias cities to price gouge locals.
blame putins bad economy on anyone except putins own 'mismanagement' and putins corrupt buddies.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)them to take advantage of human suffering, as if it is an American Tradition.
The more I learn about Russians the more I find it hard to tell the difference between us.