Agra 'kirana' dealers bring down prices

To fight the rising commodity prices in the town, the "kirana" dealers of Agra have set up retail shops in the bulk market, bringing down the average prices of commodities by up to 20 per cent in just a few days.

According to Ramanlal Goyal, chairman, Motiganj Vyapar Samiti, the retailers in the city were blaming distributors and bulk traders for the rise in commodity price, but in reality the tremendous price-hike was artificially created by retailers and to protect the consumer from an over-inflated daily expense bill, bulk traders decided to retail stuffs like pulses, oil, flour etc. at bulk rates.

On an average, he said, this strategy has enabled the consumers to buy commodities at nearly 20 per cent less prices than their neighbourhood retail shops.

He claimed that even the super-store chains like Big Bazaar and Subhiksha were not able to offer commodity rates as low as being offered by the bulk traders in Agra, a fact that was attracting numerous buyers to the shops opened in Motiganj.

"The bulk traders' initiative has affected prices in the rest of the city too. In just a couple of days over the past week the retail traders had begun to feel the heat and the prices were coming down in all areas of the town, which was a welcome sign and also an indication that a major part of the price-hike was purely artificial and could be curbed," Goyal said.

Acting on cue, the vegetable oil dealers in the Chhatta market of the town have also brought down the prices of both oil and vanaspati ghee to Rs 54 from 59 per litre. The Agra tel vyapar samiti has issued a rate code for all retailers in the town.

"The consumers were being harassed by the retailers who were charging arbitrarily raised prices despite the fact that the edible oil prices were regularly fixed by the samiti," said Mahesh Chand Mangal, chairman of the samiti.