May 15, 2008
Case checks on rice price: right or wrong?
A SURVEY on the price of rice by the Consumers Association of
Singapore (Case) is making at least one supermarket chain see red
and raising questions on whether its checks are done right.
Case released on Wednesday the prices of 10 brands of fragrant
rice at eight supermarket chains.
The survey compared prices of 5kg and 10kg bags of rice - 16
products in all - on May 6 and 7, and showed that Sheng Shiong
supermarket at Ten Mile Junction on Woodlands Road had the highest
prices for seven.
The price difference was substantial in some cases: A 10kg bag
of Golden Phoenix Fragrant Rice that cost $18.80 at a Prime
supermarket was tagged at $28 at Sheng Siong, a local outfit which
grew from a single neighbourhood store to a major chain in the last
few years on the back of a reputation for competitive pricing.
But a Sheng Shiong spokesman said Case's prices are wrong.
She said the $28 bag of rice actually cost $26.30 -
substantially different from Case's listing, but still the most
expensive in the list.
Case was also wrong when it came to the 5kg bag of the same
brand.
It reported that it cost $15, when it actually cost $13.30, the
spokesman claimed.
She said: 'The prices are so different, it is impossible that
this is so ... Case must have made a mistake, we have never charged
such prices for our rice.'
Another supermarket also said a price listing for its product
was wrong.
Case listed the price of a 10kg bag of Golden Phoenix Fragrant
Rice at Shop N Save to be $19.65, but it actually cost $20.40, said
the supermarket's spokesman.
