Prime Minister Gaston Browne has urged supermarkets in Antigua and Barbuda to immediately stop what he described as price gouging, warning that the government could take action if the practice continues.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne Show, Mr Browne cited an example of a small pack of grapes being sold for about EC$27, calling the price “totally inappropriate”. He said the Ministry of Trade and Price Control had been asked to investigate.
The prime minister said he was particularly concerned that prices had increased despite government measures aimed at reducing the cost of importing fruits and vegetables.
He appealed to supermarkets, especially larger retailers, to review their pricing and cooperate with government policy, stressing that legal or punitive action was not the preferred option.
Mr Browne said the government wanted compliance with the law to ensure fair prices for consumers, rather than resorting to the courts.
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Well, I agree with that one! A little pack of cherries in a local well visited supermarket was $20+. It was the cheapest on the shelf! Even CMC who is supposed to be easing the poor man’s squeeze are also selling the fruits at exorbitant prices! The poor man cries or dies!
Wait! Don’t we have a price control division? Is the PM saying these people not doing their jobs?. Lord have mercy !
Mr. Prime Minister, you only now realize? I often wrote about price gouging and it was said that no price gouging was going on. It is strange with election not far off all of a sudden price gouging is taking place. Business people must get back their election contributions so price gouging will never be eliminated with ABLP in charge. You people are nothing but vampires
Blessed Love, “When we SING together we get HEARD”. Basic nutritional .FOOD is not a luxury ..especially process foods with labels clearly telling the consumer you are killing yourself.(sodium 1700 mg in a small pack noodles from anywhere??ZORI? for an example targeting children and LAZY parents …Healthy eating , plenty healthy food and sharing, bartering on a large scale(Regional) hmm..LIKE pulling seine(folks pulling nets together full of fish) down by bay.Shared .SUCCESS is not notice if HEALTH ISSUES are [patterned and being SICK is excepted if ONES cannot afford simple food..Blessed LOve
Mr gassy .. what’s your angle .. are you intending to call the election or you trying to make up for the visa issue.. or you just think people folly … Gaston brown .. Mr Robin Hood and his big supermarket that he has shares in, had there prices high for a very long time, you have some big ginormous balls, you have a department that supposed to be checking on that. As usual your government people don’t do there job or can’t because of someone political influence, what about licensing at transport board? What about immigration department, what about the taxes on a whole.. you are the biggest culprit you and your chain gang..
Ec$6.60 for an M&M at Epicurean!!!
Does Antigua now have a ‘sin’ tax?
CHASE SUPERMARKET , prices are ridiculous
I heard it out of Prices and Consumer Affairs price gouging is not happening, I also said I believed palms were were getting greased to be chatting that bullshit, how else do you explain every week prices keep changing on the same item you bought the week before. People get rid of this evil regime. From Captain right down know its happening, but now the Captain is pretending he’s just now finding out. That’s the way Charlatans behave
Long overdue Prime Minister. For months, I buy a regularly popular brand of shower gel that use to cost around EC $16.00, the same said shower gel is now EC 24.00.
My weekly grocery bill has also risen by 15-20% over the last 10-11 months. Price gouging is totally out of control; but yet according to government CPI figures it has fallen.
Prime Minister it’s time to take action and halt this avarice…
There were some of the ABLP fools on here calling for boycott of goods from Trinidad after the PM of T&T made the smart move to side with the US. What a ting.. 😂
Why don’t y’all same fools boycott these tiefing businesses in Antigua who GB is beholden to and letting them get away with blatant robbery?
We have some of the biggest crooks in Antigua just robbing the people left right and center, from car procurement thief to hurricane relief funds.
Just pure robbers and thieves in high places..
Why you think the youth go out and rob, because who can really afford this sort of living, only but the rich who are robbing the people blind!
Imagine you are considered a “big-shot” because you can go in a supermarket in Antigua to buy basic goods, Just imagine that?
A ” big-shot” because you can by basic goods,and a nobody if you can’t.
This is the type of classism that has crippled the psychological growth of many youths across the carribean over the years.
They are felt left out and useless in their society, because it’s only the rich who can afford to even attain the basic daily human needs like food.
So their spirits are crushed, because in the Caribbean you are considered a nobody when you can’t live up to these high cost of living standards.
How can you keep a girl if you can’t even afford food? No wonder the infidelity rate in some of these islands are so high, and many getting wrong kids, because the women are out cheating with the man who got money, just so she can eat or live a decent life.
Unfortunately, many of these men already have their wives, so these females are just reduced to ” side chicks” and stay unmarried throughout their lives.
The circle is real, and many of it starts with this type of classism even in the grocery stores with these highway robbery prices.
12 years in office, and it’s now this man talking about punishing these crooks he’s beholden to in business all across Antigua?
What the hell have you have been doing all this time GB, to allowed this to even got this bad?
This man cares nothing for people, nothing.
There were some of the ABLP fools on here calling for boycott of goods from Trinidad after the PM of T&T made the smart move to side with the US. What a ting.. 😂
Why don’t y’all same fools boycott these tiefing businesses in Antigua who GB is beholden to and letting them get away with blatant robbery?
We have some of the biggest crooks in Antigua just robbing the people left right and center, from car procurement thief to hurricane relief funds.
Just pure robbers and thieves in high places..
Why you think the youth go out and rob, because who can really afford this sort of living, only but the rich who are robbing the people blind!
Imagine you are considered a “big-shot” because you can go in a supermarket in Antigua to buy basic goods, Just imagine that?
A ” big-shot” because you can by basic goods,and a nobody if you can’t.
This is the type of classism that has crippled the psychological growth of many youths across the carribean over the years.
They are felt left out and useless in their society, because it’s only the rich who can afford to even attain the basic daily human needs like food.
So their spirits are crushed, because in the Caribbean you are considered a nobody when you can’t live up to these high cost of living standards.
How can you keep a girl if you can’t even afford food? No wonder the infidelity rate in some of these islands are so high, and many getting wrong kids, because the women are out cheating with the man who got money, just so she can eat or live a decent life.
Unfortunately, many of these men already have their wives, so these females are just reduced to ” side chicks” and stay unmarried throughout their lives.
The circle is real, and many of it starts with this type of classism even in the grocery stores with these highway robbery prices.
12 years in office, and it’s now this man talking about punishing these crooks he’s beholden to in business all across Antigua?
What the hell have you have been doing all this time GB, to allowed this to even got this bad?
This man cares nothing for people, nothing.
These comments though. Y’all chatting shit. If you go to a supermarket and you think the price of the irem (s) is not what it’s supposed to be, don’t you take your case to Price & Consumer Affairs? Cause that’s where I would go. What does the Prime Minister have to do with the prices? People are hired to do their jobs, but plenty a dem jus’ a lime, then the PM gets the blame for EVERYTHING! It’s tiring.
I would not let Gaston to fool me by posing as a knight in a shining armor, pretending he fighting supermarkets for us.
He Gaston don’t reduce fuel price though it went down on the world market so that transportation cost can go down, neither lower the fuel variation at APUA so that electricity cost can go down that the supermarket price can come down.
Gaston think a the older people who not so literate he is talking to?
Gaston saying he giving some little ABST off for the Antiguans and he muttering how it could be destructive if we get such benefits for any long period, but his white friends and mafias enjoy tax concessions into perpetuity.
All tax should be reduce as you did for foreign investors, concessions to local can bring in tax though at reduce rate but increase in volume due to quantity of contribution.
You have Cospro supermarket that won’t even give back our points your own money from a discount and you can’t even get it back and the government don’t even do anything about that .. Gaston fix that issue “COSPRO” IS ROBBING PEOPLE OUT OF THERE POINTS . GASTON, do you have shares in Cospro ? Or maybe a link from your chain gang does ..
@Fc stands for fuc##ing cunt.. what a stupid statement so the people of antigua should go to price affairs .. WTF like really? those people don’t shop at these same supermarket.. don’t you understand this is a damn cult. Don’t you understand that people are being paid to turn a blind eye on certain establishments Barrett establishments, Barrett has the best roads out English Harbour leading to Saint James hotel, where his water pressure always high, don’t you understand these guys are like heroes of Antigua and they get to do whatever they want. Don’t you understand that this is a regime of corruption? why do you think we don’t have a pass visa rights anymore to the USA do you think it’s because we are a great country and we play by all the rules…
CostPro isn’t robbing nobody, they are accumulating some Rewards Point per purchase consumers does over there, but seems the system isn’t reliable and internal workers are cheating the accounting system for personal gain. That’s why CostPro stopped this. The facts the point still accumulating is because the POS Sales Point is programed to do it, but the reality they can’t afford to make consumers use those points. Point systems is a choice, not an obligation, yo didn’t sign up a contract with them.
@ citizen…
Thats nonsense…. The supermarket was the one cheating people not the internal accounting system. so if they are getting robbed from there staff why does the customer have to pay for there lost? ..
He need fu check fu he supermarket dat he hab inna Ebenezer!
Hence their grapes will stay on their shelf and rotten
Pm I find you late
$27 for a small pack of grapes is robbery. Somebody finally saying it out loud
People can’t survive like this, food is not a luxury.
I understand costs are high, but that price feels like taking advantage of people who don’t have a choice. I appreciate that it’s the top government official that’s making this comment on his radio station
Since Government reduced duties, so someone needs to explain why prices are still rising.
Chance, Gaston knows price gouging was going on. Election is close by so he is trying his regular bullshit and you have just swallowed it. How dumb can you be
This is why we need free markets with accompanying regulations. The government needs to have competition laws to ensure monopolies aren’t created.
We need more competition in the supermarket space. If everyone stops buying from the overpriced sellers and start supporting the cheaper ones then the prices will start coming down.
Food and healthy food is not a luxury.
The healthy foods are extremely expensive. Why? Government always talking about eating healthy, how can people eat healthy when the good foods are so expensive. That’s why people are dying from diabetes and hypertension. Vegetables and fruits should be affordable for everyone.
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