The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

STORES around the Bahamas are in compliance with price regulation laws for bread basket items according to Sidney McKenzie, chief inspection officer for the Ministry of Labour and National Insurance.

He made this declaration yesterday after he and three other officers inspected the SuperValue food store on East Street to see if the prices on certain items were appropriate and if each item contained a visible price tag on them.

He said: “We are checking prices of bread basket items to ensure that the prices are in compliance with the law. We are also checking items to see if prices are visible on them and if only one price appears on them.”

Bread basket items are: cooking oil, corn beef, mayonnaise, tomato paste, rice, sugar, margarine, butter, fresh eggs, evaporated milk, cheddar cheese and flour.

Since 1973, the Price Control unit of the Ministry of Labour has been responsible for monitoring the prices on these items.

Mr McKenzie said: “We’ve divided the island up into zones. Every store is inspected at least four times per year.

“A lot of people wouldn’t be able to afford the bread basket items if we didn’t regulate their prices.”

He added that government allows only a 13 per cent mark up on wholesale items and 23 per cent mark up on retail items.

“There are penalties for violation of the law. We could take owners to court where they could be charged between $2,500 and $5,000 depending on the infraction they committed.

“The law says that if more than one price is found on an item, one must pay the cheapest price.

“We tell people that if they go to a store that has two prices on an item and they are told they have to pay the higher price that is on that item, they should pay the higher price and then bring the item to us so we could take action against the store for not complying with policy.

“We haven’t found any breaches in stores this year. An increase in staff in the last six years means we inspect more frequently and we find greater compliance with the law as consequence,” he said.