The crisis is here, so I am giving up on impulsive shopping in just one store. I decide to take advantage of the benefits of free market competition and the prohibition of cartel price-fixing, embarking on a circular tour of hypermarkets and buying only the items that are cheapest in each. I take the daily newspaper and look at the ads, collect promotional catalogs, and make a plan.
I decide that this week I will buy kulen (1 kilogram 59.99 kuna) at Plodine, for oil (1 liter 6.99 kuna) I will go to Billa, I will buy pineapple (1 piece 8.99 kuna) at Lidl, for milk chocolate at a super price (14.99 kuna for 200 grams) I will pop into Konzum, and at Kaufland I will buy pork neck (26.99 kuna per kilogram). I am thrilled because I just calculated that I will save 4.27 kuna, which I would have spent more if I had, as usual, succumbed to my inherent laziness and done all my shopping in just one store. I am so satisfied with myself that I am considering sharing my experience with the whole world, to apply for the Oprah show.
I am left with the dilemma of where to buy oranges? Lo and behold, this week most retail chains offer them at the same price of 3.99 kuna. Do I have reason to be concerned, I wonder. Is it mere coincidence or is it a cartel agreement on the price of oranges? Should I react and report the case to the Competition Protection Agency? I feel violated in my fundamental consumer right, the one that states that there should not be the same price for the same product in two different stores, not even in a crazy situation. On the other hand, it is still not uncommon for consumers to feel threatened in their rights when they see different prices for the same product in two different stores. ‘How is that possible?’ – they scream on the phones of consumer protection associations – ‘In one store this and that costs 10 kuna and in the other, right next to it, the same thing is 12 kuna.’
