YOURSAY | ‘You have to look at the entire ecosystem to tackle inflation’.

Rafizi defends call for consumers to be picky to bring down prices

Siva1967: I am in consensus with Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli. The people must take control of their spending habits and “force” the restaurants and eatery outlets to reduce their prices. Many times, these operators are quick to increase the prices of food and beverage when prices of other goods go up.

For example, when it is announced that the price of petrol has increased, at that very moment, the price of a plate of nasi lemak or teh tarik goes up as well. When enquired, the operator claims that petrol prices have gone up.

Pressed further by saying lorries are powered by diesel and I believe raw materials are delivered by lorries and not petrol-driven cars. “Saya tak tahu, boss suruh tambah harga”.

However, rarely do we witness the prices that went up, coming down when the price of petrol is lowered. These are the unscrupulous operators that spoil the market and they know that the consumers are not in power to do anything. One can scream and yell all he/she wants at the outlet and nothing changes.

I have an experience to share that I encountered here in Phnom Penh. The price of my regular pack of cigarettes is RM6.50. I purchase two packs daily at a store just 40m from my house. The sundry shop operator increased the price of a pack to RM7.00, which was not a burden to me since the shop was very conveniently located for me.

The prices at another outlet which is about 90m away were still RM6.50.

Thereafter, the same shop increased the price of the pack to RM8.00. This was when I decided to stop purchasing the pack from the shop closer to me and walked that extra few metres to purchase my packs. I didn’t protest to the operator that her price was higher but silently stopped buying it from there.

One day I ran out of sticks and the other shop was closed for some reason unknown to me. I had no option but to go back to the initial operator. To my amazement, the price of a pack has now gone back to RM7.00.

My silent act of not patronising that sundry shop has worked. If one act of “boycott” can reverse the situation, just imagine what all of us can do by ganging up on a certain brand or outlet. To whom will these outlets sell, when no one goes there?

All it takes is some self-discipline, a tightening of the belt, and convincing the kids to eat home-cooked food and buy what they need and not what they want. Also, purchase everything in small portions.

A fully stocked-up kitchen cannot hold onto its stock since most food items are perishable and has a shelf life. Further to that, an outlet cannot re-stock if the existing stock is not sold off and the backlash to the suppliers and manufacturers also will be felt.

I am not suggesting collapsing the supply chain, I am suggesting that we as consumers can make a difference. If we want to. Instead of just complaining every day that the prices of goods have gone up.

Andersonian: Rafizi is still right in principle. Higher food prices are largely due to many factors. Why pick on chicken, eggs and cooking oil prices to politicise? So many other things are going up like property, automobile, hotel accommodation, broadband and Astro has gone up but nobody complains. Compared to Indonesia, Thailand or Vietnam our street food prices may be even lower.

We are regressing from reaching higher income on our local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) side. Don't count foreign multinational companies (MNC) but also we are sharing a cut with other Asean countries.

Rafizi should come out with an incentive to drive higher Operational Expenditure Contract (Opex), Capital Expenditure Contract (Capex), innovation for local industries and improve our supply chain. Regulate and have healthy mergers and not the 30 percent sleeping shareholder wanting perks and bonuses only.

Kim Quek: Rafizi is right to point out how consumer resistance can contribute to our fight against inflation.

In fact, in my view, the average Malaysian consumer has not developed sufficient price sensitivity to boycott sellers of goods that have gone up in price unreasonably. And that has encouraged the flowering of opportunistic inflation which has contributed in no small measure to skyrocketing prices in recent years.

If everyone possesses price sensitivity and the will to play his part as a responsible consumer, the consequential consumer resistance can be a powerful force to eliminate the irrational component of our inflation which is no doubt grounded on many external factors arising from the pandemic, war and geopolitical conflicts, etc.

Perhaps the government can consider starting a consumer awareness campaign to inculcate responsible consumerism to supplement its main economic strategy to overcome our current inflation.

Nuyiko: Restaurants are not selling raw food, their costing involved raw materials, rental, labour costs, electricity, water bill, and transportation cost. Even if the raw material price goes down, it doesn’t mean they are making huge profits because other costs still go up.

Inflation is a supply chain issue, it is not a matter of who is more greedy to make more money. You have to look at the entire ecosystem to tackle inflation.

The economy is fuelled and sustained by production, investment and consumption. Asking the consumer to stop buying will stop money flowing. When the money stops flowing, it will trigger recession and unemployment because business is not profitable enough to retain the workforce.

As economy minister, your job is to stimulate economic growth by providing an incentive to encourage more production, investment and consumption. Your job is to grow the cake bigger, so everyone gets a bigger slice, not arguing about who should get a bigger sliver over a smaller cake.

So you hadn’t done well by pinning businesses and consumers against each other. You are the economy minister, you can’t manage the country's economy like the household economy.

Max Fury: This should be handled by the Domestic Trade and Living Cost Ministry. Its minister Salahuddin Ayub should be doing more for the people if you ask me.

Rafizi should be looking at the big picture for the country. Give us figures and numbers and plans for the future of the country going forward.

At the moment we don’t feel the country has a solid plan to move forward. It seems to be all talk and arguments wishy-washy with no specifics or implementations. Rafizi could do better.

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