It is outrightly absurd that certain shop-owners use the euro changeover as an excuse – a very bad excuse, for that matter – to raise retail prices.

The National Euro Changeover Committee is doing its utmost to ensure that shop-owners act fairly by displaying correct prices in Maltese lira and euro, but something must be done to ensure that some shop-

owners do not try raising prices haphazardly in the hope that people do not notice.

The Malta Independent on Sunday recently reported that the owner of a grocery raised the price of a jar of coffee from Lm1.55 to Lm2.55 and when someone pointed out the “mistake” he stupidly said it was the price in euro. The equivalent of the correct price of the jar of coffee would be e3.61, so who was he trying to fool?

Thankfully, the consumer in question knew perfectly what the usual price of that specific brand of coffee was, but what if someone else who is not conversant with the exact prices of grocery items, went to buy the same jar of coffee?

Attempting to fool consumers who might not know the specific price of items is absolutely unethical and strict measures should be taken to protect consumers in this regard.

Josephine Caruana

Ta’ Xbiex