Western Balkan consumers join boycott of retailers in protest over prices
Baku, February 1, AZERTAC
Many shoppers in Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia on Friday joined a trend that first started in Croatia - boycotting stores in protest against eye-watering price rises.
According to the Balkan Insight, a boycott of retail chains over rising prices that began last Friday in Croatia spread across the region this Friday, with shoppers spurning stores in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
In Croatia, a day-long boycott of all stores was held on Friday, called by the Facebook group Halo Inspector, which is backed by an NGO called the European Center for Consumer Excellence.
Data from Croatia’s Tax Administration showed that the total number of invoices issued on Friday by 3 p.m. was 31 per cent lower than Friday, January 17, when there was no boycott.
Halo Inspector’s adviser, Josip Kelemen, had called on Croatian consumers to “refrain from any purchases” on Friday, including all stores, transactions with banks, telecoms, and orders via delivery platforms.
“We need to send a message to those who are causing this price gouging. We also want to send messages to banks. Don’t go to banks, they are also part of the price increases,” Kelemen said.
In Serbia, Efektiva, a consumer rights association, urged consumers to specifically boycott five big supermarkets. “Don’t buy from these five tomorrow. Buy anywhere else, just don’t go to them! A small shop, a market. One day you’ll manage,” the association wrote in their call on social media.
When BIRN visited a few supermarkets in Serbia on Friday there were fewer consumers than usual, but some people were still buying in them.
In Serbia, the retail business is highly concentrated. Research conducted by the Republic Institute of Statistics showed that the top three supermarket chains had a 48.9 per cent market share.
Following the example of Croatia, people in Bosnia and Herzegovina also joined the boycott. Media reports suggested it was less successful than the one in neighbouring Croatia, as people were still out shopping.
But Amina, who works at a tobacco and newspaper shop in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, told BIRN that Friday’s traffic was half of what they see on an average working day.
“Even regular customers who come for newspapers every morning were not here today,” she said, adding that it was the first time in seven years spent working at the same place “that the papers will have to be returned”.
In supermarkets that BIRN visited in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, staff told BIRN that their turnover was down by about 30 to 50 per cent.
The Alternative Montenegro party, which is among the main advocates of a boycott, announced that this action was just the beginning. “This is the beginning of a new moment in which the voice of the citizens is heard, in which the citizens decide their fate,” it stated.
Supermarkets in North Macedonia also expect less customers. The local Association of Consumers supported the boycott calls and both the ruling VMRO DPMNE and opposition Social Democratic parties said they support demands for lower prices.
“We are a discount store chain and lower, consumer-friendly prices are an essential part of our brand. But even we are facing a lower turnout today,” a store manager in Skopje told BIRN under condition of anonymity.
“The milk, the bread, the flour, the detergent … every product has risen in price by a lot. This is insane!” a woman in front of a supermarket in Skopje told BIRN.
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