There is no end in sight for rising prices, President and Chief Financial Officer of Super Value Debra Symonette said yesterday, adding that while the largest food store chain is doing its best to “beat the price”, it is stumped as to when escalating prices will end.
Symonette spoke with Guardian Business after the International Monetary Fund projected consumer prices would rise by 7.3 percent this year in The Bahamas, in its recently released World Economic Outlook (WEO).
Symonette said she was not surprised by the projection, adding there is very little merchants can do aside from keeping store shelves stocked at the best possible prices.
“We are anticipating that increase, but we are really kind of stumped as to when this thing is going to end. We’re not sure if this is going to be another six months or go into next year, it’s kind of tricky. All we know is right now we are experiencing a lot of price hikes and that’s why we are constantly having to purchase as much as we can at current prices,” she told Guardian Business.
“We’re doing our best to beat the price hikes, because it’s a constant thing, one price hike right after the other. There are a lot of issues, first COVID, then worker shortages, the supply chain issues, and it just keeps going and going, and there is something new every day.
“So, we are not surprised when we hear, oh well, we’re going to have another price hike this week, to look out for it. Once we hear that we try to purchase in advance if they allow us, because some companies may not allow it.”
Earlier this month, Super Value revealed that supply chain issues still exist and it is currently running a month behind schedule with new purchases. Still, the grocery giant said it has about six months supply of hard goods such as corned beef, spaghetti and meatballs, sardines, pigeon peas, cooking oil and canned soups. However, items such as flour, rice and cereals are low in stock.
Asked if there’s anything more that can be done to alleviate the pressure on Bahamian consumers, Symonette said, “No, no. The best we can do is keeping quantities and good prices. Once we get good prices it automatically passes onto the customer. But when it gets to a point where the prices have risen to a certain level, we can’t continue to carry the old price because we’ll lose.
“There has been a real hike on flour, cooking oil and things like that, and of course the eggs and the eggs crisis – the birds have died from bird flu and that has caused a drastic increase in the price of eggs.”
The IMF said in its WEO that inflationary pressures are projected to see a lower increase in 2023 of 4.5 percent, before leveling out to pre-pandemic levels of 2.4 percent in 2027.
Inflation of 7.3 percent is the highest year over year increase in consumer prices since 1991.
