Price fraud

At 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, 1994, I entered the Hero Supermarket in Blok M Plaza to make the simple purchase of a loaf of bread. I selected one from a rack which contained a considerable number, all of which were priced at Rp 1500 with a Hero tag.

However, when presenting this to the Bakery section cashier I was advised that the price was Rp 1800 and the figure was rung up on the cash register. My reaction was to hand the loaf back, pick up my money and leave. The Rp 300 increase is not a large amount of money. But it does represent a 20 percent increase on a basic commodity such as bread.

It was the method of the transaction that was unbearable. There is a word in the English language that covers a method such as this -- the word is fraud.

I can already see the Hero management reaching for their in- house manual and the oversized section marked "How to reply to dissatisfied customers", so one can only expect one of their standard, hackneyed replies.

PETER WARD

Jakarta