Big discounts offered, customers warned<\/p>\n
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Ahead of the holiday season, many shopping malls and department
\nstores are offering hefty discounts and special prices in a bid
\nto attract shoppers, but the Indonesian Consumer Foundation
\n(YLKI) warned the public to be more critical in responding to
\noffers, to avoid being trapped by tricks of the trade.<\/p>\n
The discounts, offered from mid-November to the end of
\nDecember, range from 20 percent to 70 percent and are mostly for
\nfashion products, food and beverages, shoes and religious
\nparaphernalia like sarongs, mukena (women's prayer outfits), and
\nsajadah (prayer mats).<\/p>\n
YLKI's executive Diah Indriantari, however, called upon
\ncustomers to be careful.<\/p>\n
\"Customers, please be careful, many tricks are used by
\nbusinesspeople to sell their merchandise,\" she said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\"In many cases the discounts are applied to rejected products
\nand the shops carefully repair the broken parts and give them
\nspecial price tags,\" Diah told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
She was more worried if discounts were applied to food and
\nbeverage products or medicines. She called on people to double-
\ncheck the expiry date of products.<\/p>\n
\"There have been many cases where people took home out-of-date
\nproducts. That's dangerous.\"<\/p>\n
She regretted it that in the country there were no regulations
\nfrom the trade and industry ministry on this matter.<\/p>\n
\"In some foreign countries, controls over the sale of reject
\nproducts, old stock or items that are given special prices are
\nrobust and rigorous. Businesspeople cannot play around with
\ndiscounts,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Consequently, Diah warned, the public should not rush to
\nshopping malls upon hearing about big discounts on offer.<\/p>\n
\"Decide what you really need and shop for what is necessary,
\nnot merely because there are discounted products on offer,\" she
\nremarked.<\/p>\n
A customer, Rani, a resident of Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta,
\nsaid she was often told by friends that discounts were either
\ngiven to inferior products, or the new price tags and the
\ncalculation of prices involved sleight of hand.<\/p>\n
\"My friends told me that the prices were all raised and then
\ndiscounted. That's tricky, but we cannot detect it unless we take
\na note of prices every time we come here,\" she added.<\/p>\n
Rani said that she had come to shop, not because of the
\ndiscounts, but because she could no longer bear to hear her
\ndaughter weeping while asking for a new T-shirt and jeans.<\/p>\n
\"I know there are sales on everywhere but I'm not tempted by
\nthem in the slightest. But this time I couldn't help it, my
\ndaughter kept on imploring me,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile a supervisor at Matahari's Citraland shopping mall
\nin West Jakarta, Nugraheni, denied the public's suspicion that
\nprices were raised before they were discounted.<\/p>\n
\"People can check at other stores and compare the prices;
\nbelieve me, we don't resort to such tricks. The prices have been
\ncalculated carefully. Our products may be old stock but they are
\nstill good quality -- they justify the prices charged,\" she said.<\/p>\n
In Matahari department store, discounts are given to items
\nselected from many product lines.<\/p>\n
\"Most of the discounted items are old stock but none of them
\nare rejected products. They are around four months to five months
\nold, not very old indeed ... ,\" Nugraheni said.<\/p>",
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