The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s principal yesterday said a review of 15 commonly-bought items revealed The Bahamas sustained food inflation of around 30 percent over the past two years, adding: “The customers are re-training us.”

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that the simple assessment, involving products shoppers purchase on a weekly basis such as bread, rice and poultry, exposed that the extent of food price increases between 2021 and 2023 was triple or three times’ what some of his buyers had projected

And, predicting that surging global oil prices will send Bahamian gasoline prices to $6.25 per gallon within weeks, he predicted that the ever-increasing cost of living - and the crisis it poses for many middle and lower income households - will take a growing cut of Super Value’s sales and those of all grocery retailers.

“Somebody asked the buyers what they thought inflation was since 2021,” Mr Roberts told this newspaper. “They said probably 10 percent. I had the Abaco store take 15 items that customers buy each week, and it came to 30 percent.... The figure was more like 30 percent. We tried to pick the items everybody shops for every week - the bread, the rice, the poultry and milk. That’s what we came up with.”

He added that Super Value and its buying team were paying especially close attention to their customers’ shopping habits to identify which products are either too expensive or not popular. Any items that are not selling are “sold-off” at half-price to ensure all inventory is exhausted before their expiry date and then never purchased again.

“Things the customers are avoiding, pricey merchandise, I suppose cooking oil and mayonnaise, the items that always take the increase, we sell them off at half-price to meet the expiry date and probably never order them again in history,” Mr Roberts explained. 

“Customers are retraining us. Anything that’s too expensive we will not buy or re-order. Any new brand at a lower price, if they don’t like the flavour then we don’t buy it. We try it and eliminate it. I’ve said to the buyers that the customers are teaching us when the prices are too high, they are teaching us when they don’t like the flavour or when they don’t like a new item.

“We just sell it off at a low cost and get rid of it, and don’t go there no more. We’re certainly trying to keep the cost of living down; that’s why we’re working so hard. Those items that went too high, and the customers stopped buying, we are able to take them, sell them off a half-price to beat the expiry date, and put two-thirds of the money back in the bank.”

The Super Value principal, though, warned that food price inflation is having a negative impact on health because it is pushing many consumers to lower price foods that are not positive for their wellness. “It’s driving the consumer to the more economical, unhealthy foods, which is the wrong way to go because it impacts the health of the nation,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business. 

While prices for around two-thirds of Super Value’s inventory have “levelled off” for the moment, including rice, canned meats, canned fish and the likes of mayonnaise and cooking oil, others have continued to rise. Sugar prices are rising every quarter, while Procter & Gamble-branded products are likely to increase in cost by 3-5 percent when the next shipment comes in. Kraft-branded items, too, are set to increase.

“There are a couple of commodities that keep going up. I don’t know what’s driving it,” Mr Roberts said. “Pork is going up already. Pork has gone up at least about three weeks ago, and bacon is following it. Hams will be at least 20 percent higher than last year, and turkeys. 

“We’re doing the best we can. We did some advance buying, paying and putting into storage for shipment. We’ve fought hard to make deals and get the best price. A lot of buying habits have changed. I predict that in five years we will be buying more out of Brazil than we will be buying from the US, pork and chicken coming from Brazil. We have mayonnaise in the warehouse now from Egypt at half the price of the US.

“The buying habits of countries have changed. A lot of sources of supply have changed. I think the wholesalers and retailers are to be commended on the job they’ve done for the public and the country. They’ve really worked hard to source the best price, and the lower the price the more sales we can get in,” he continued.

“When the price peaks the customers stop buying.... We hate to put high prices or price increases out there because we know what it means. It means two-thirds of the customers are not meeting their budgets now, so when we give them another price increase it really hurts.”

Mr Roberts also voiced fears that rising energy and transportation costs, via Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and higher global oil prices respectively, are continually squeezing consumer purchasing power. “I expect gas to go to $6.25 per gallon this week or next,” he told Tribune Business. “The gas stations and BPL are taking our sales. It’s cutting into the grocery budget.”