Prices taking food off plates

CHANDIGARH: Everybody has long known there is no such thing as a free lunch. But these days, people are being made to realize that lunch is, in fact, extremely expensive. Pulses, vegetables, fruits, spices and condiments have started pinching the common man’s pocket, while robbing home-made food of its flavour.
The root of this problem does not appear to be lying in demand and supply gap.
A walk through Sector-26 grain market, which offers food products at wholesale prices, allows one to see who is causing this situation to emerge — the retailers.
Swanky retail stores that sell food items with free home delivery services are charging exorbitant prices as compared to city’s wholesale dealers.
Arhar dal costs Rs 65 per kg in wholesale market and is retailed at Rs 78 per kg. Pepper is sold at Rs 250 per kg in retail stores and in wholesale market, it costs Rs 180.
Also prices for each food item differ from one market to the next. For instance, wholesalers are charging Rs 45 for a kilo of Kabuli chana (white) but in Sector 8, grocers sell it for Rs 56. In Sector 14 it sells for Rs 54, while in Sector-26 retail stores, it costs Rs 49. Factors leading to this difference are many.
“Retailers fix a price for each item after taking into consideration expenses like transport, rent, pay of staff, maintaining the ambience and their profit. All these costs are passed on to the end-users,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, owner of a wholesale store in grain market.
TP Singh, wholesale vegetable seller, added, “Retailers buy locally produced food items from us and claim they procure those from other places. They are just fooling consumers.”
Vijender Singh, fruit wholesaler, stated, “Vendors and stores are looting people big time.”
Retailers defended their pricing. “Quality is the main difference. Wholesalers sell inferior stuff as compared to ours,” said Naresh Sharma, a retailer from Sector 26.
Prices of many food articles had recently fallen, but retailers have not lowered those at their end. Naveen Kumar, who runs a provision store in Sector-8 market, said, “Though the prices have taken a plunge, we cannot incur losses. So, we are still selling pluses at the earlier rates, which are higher than those prevailing.”
The sharp difference in prices took Priyanka Negi, a Sector-45 resident, by surprise, “Only quality counts these days, but making money in such a way from salaried people is not fair.” The administration is just being a spectator as the situation is not improving.
supriya.bhardwaj@timesgroup.com