CAGAYAN de Oro City Councilor George Goking on Monday is reminding consumers to do their Christmas shopping early to avoid crowding in shopping malls and grocery stores.
“Consumers are advised no longer to wait for the last minute shopping,” said Goking, the council’s committee on trade and commerce chair.
Aside from doing early shopping, Goking said consumers are also told to be wise buyers.
"As wise buyers, they should not be brand conscious but grab the opportunity to buy products that are sold as premium in pack,” he said.
Goking also said that since most of the government employees have received their bonuses, then they could already do their Christmas shopping and no longer wait for a few days before December 25.
“Supermarkets have remained compliant with the suggested retail price (SRP) ahead of the Christmas holidays,” said Goking.
With the provincial trade and industry department director Almer Masilliones and lawyer Egay Uy of the City Price Coordinating Council, he said they continue to monitor prices and even came up with early announcement regarding the prices of specific goods.
“We have not yet received any complaint on overpricing or at least selling above the SRP,” Goking said.
Late last month, Goking with the agencies intensified their monitoring of Noche Buena products to make sure that prices of commodities will not exceed the Suggested Retail Price (SRP).
“So far in our monitoring of the Noche Buena products the major stores in the city had not exceeded the SRP,” Goking said.
He said that shopping malls and markets will get a letter of inquiry if ever they will be found to have exceeded the SRP.
However, with the DTI, Goking said that they still closely balancing the request of manufacturers to hike prices while protecting consumer welfare.
“Commodity prices were unchanged for about two years since the pandemic started and were only hiked by about 2 to 3 percent starting August this year,” said Goking. (Ben Balce)
