It is nearly six weeks since the introduction of the “Household Basket”, the concept devised by the government in an effort to keep down rising consumer prices (see https://kolymbaricourier.com/2022/11/06/the-household-basket/). The system, imposed on all supermarket chains with an annual turnover of more than 90 million euros, established a list of basic household commodities for which the supermarkets were obliged to publish their prices on a weekly basis. The aim was not to directly control prices but to encourage competition, in the hope that this would lead at least to price stabilisation and ideally price reductions.
In excerpts from an interview on OpenTV on 7th December, published on YouTube by APE-MPE, the minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis claimed that the scheme has been a success. “Today we are entering the sixth week of operation of the ‘Household Basket’. For the sixth week we are seeing stable prices for two-thirds of the products. Of the 816 products, 70 have increased in price (9%), 154 have been reduced (19%) and the rest have remained stable (72%).”
The sum of 128 euros which the average basket cost in the first week, he said, has now come down to 100 euros. “This means that the basket is working and I want to thank consumers, because the reason why it is working is that the consumers prefer it.”
Two more baskets for the festive season
Extending the principle to the festive season, the ministry has now announced the “Festive Basket”, with the addition of four categories of Christmas fare, namely turkey, beef, tsoureki or vasilopita (the traditional Christmas bread and cake), and chocolate. Two other Christmas staples, kourabiedes and melomakarona, are not included, the minister said, to avoid unfair competition with independent bakeries and zacharoplasteia. The Festive Basket will run from 14th December to 4th January.
Also soon to be introduced is “Santa’s Basket” containing toys and entertain- ments for children, for the period 14/12/22 to 11/01/23. The basket will comprise 10 categories of toys and games:
– Board games, puzzles
– Games with dolls, dolls’ houses and other accessories (role-playing games)
– Infants’ toys
– Action figures
– Construction and creative toys (e.g. play bricks)
– Remote-controlled vehicles
– Electronic games
– Sporting toys (e.g. balls, children’s basketballs and goals)
– Plush toys
– Musical toys
Talking to ERT News the following day, Mr Georgiadis said that the concept was not necessarily restricted to the big supermarket chains, and that interest was being shown by toy stores with turnovers of 1 million euros and upwards. “Yesterday they sent me the first emails with their proposed baskets. The whole toys and games sector will be in on the basket. And I can tell you that there will be a lot of joy inside it. It won’t be measly, it will have lots of different things,” he said.