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Supermarket Chains Offering Price Reductions in March

Some of the major supermarkets have agreed to sell selected basic foods and other necessities at cost for the month of March, a saving to consumers of up to 30 per cent, according to Government officials.

The consumer protection department at the Ministry of Economy has worked out a programme with participating shops, that will discount up to 1,000 items, as part of Gulf Consumer Protection Day.

“I tried to co-ordinate with all sectors, the private sectors and also the co-ops to try and help the consumer,” said Dr Hashim al Neaimi, the manager of the consumer protection department. “These are strategic items, such as rice, flour, sugar and oil.”

Participating retailers include Abu Dhabi Co-operative Society, which is discounting 235 items, and Lulu Hypermarkets, which is selling about 50 items at the supplier’s price.

These items at Lulu include Brazilian chicken, which has been reduced from Dh9.50 (US$3.40) per kg to Dh8.50 per kg, but also non-food items such as toothbrushes, said V Nandakumar, the corporate communication director at Emke Group, which runs LuLu Hypermarkets.

Discounts range between 10 and 30 per cent, and Lulu may add more items to the list, and possibly continue with the profit-free pricing programme after March 31, he said.

“We are going to make less money than we were making before, but it is something that we felt strongly about,” Mr Nandakumar said.

The consumer protection department has already been working with retailers to freeze or reduce the prices of key foodstuffs after hit a record high of 12 per cent in March last year…SOURCE

More than 1,000 Sharjah youths need social help

Police fear that hundreds of young people in Sharjah are victims of abuse and deprivation after a new support service was inundated with pleas for help.

A committee for deprived children was formed early last year by Sharjah Police and Sharjah Department of Naturalisation and Residency. It has registered more than 1,000 children in need of social help.

The number was far higher than the committee had expected, Brig Humaid al Hudaid, the director of Sharjah Police, said at a recent committee meeting, which was also attended by Col Dr Abdullah Ali al Sahooh, the director of the naturalisation department. Brig Humaid added that there were increasingly more children being deprived of their rights in the emirate.They include abandoned children, child victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, children of mothers in prison and orphans, as well as children from families too poor to provide necessities such as food, education and health care…SOURCE