The basket will be available in stores from August 28th until October 15th and will include school bags, cases, notebooks/pads (and notebook labels and covers), pencils (wooden or mechanical), markers and crayons, pens, erasers, scrapers, rulers and rulers (set of geometrical instruments), while for the first time photocopier paper is also included. Toy and technology chains that also sell school supplies, as well as supermarket chains with a turnover of more than 1 million euros, will participate in this initiative, while they will optionally be able to have the “school basket” and neighborhood bookstores.
The merchants
“The state of emergency that still prevails in the Red Sea has almost tripled the transport costs for businesses. Since most of the school supplies are imported from China, markups are inevitable. The companies cannot absorb the large increases in transport costs”, he says to “ET”. retail representative. The same source points out that the burden on stationery is also significant, as the cost of the raw material has increased significantly.
In this context, at a meeting held yesterday at the Ministry of Development, the competent minister, Takis Theodorikakos, asked the market executives to exhaust all margins for profit reduction and for prices to be better than last year, stressing that there is no justification for any revaluation in school supplies. For their part, the companies in the sector committed to maintaining stable prices of the products that will be included in the “basket” and where possible to reduce them, while a representative of a large Greek school supplies company announced that it has already proceeded with price reductions of 5%-7 %.
Checks for profiteering
In the meantime, the Ministry of Development has announced intensive checks on the market in order to establish whether the legislation on the ceiling on the profit margin, which also includes school supplies, is being respected. The fine, in case of infringements, even reaches 5 million euros, as it was increased fivefold after a recent legislative initiative.
“We have to do everything we can to support the family and meet basic needs like school supplies. All market operators should reduce their profits in the current social situation and for this purpose the controls for the implementation of the law on the profit ceiling will be multiplied in relation to 2021”, said the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikakos, speaking to “ET.”
Liabilities
The companies that will participate in the “school basket” are obliged to include at least one product in the list they send to the Ministry of Development, if they have products of this category for sale to consumers. The debtors send to the Ministry of Development a list of consumer products on a weekly basis, every Wednesday by 9:00 am.
Informing the consumer public about the products participating in the initiative is mandatory: a) Through a special mark placed on the products or in their physical or electronic sales area or in any means by which the products are advertised to the consumer, b) through posting, at the entrance of each store, a clear list/catalogue of the products that make up the “household basket”, as well as the prices at which the products are offered and c) through at least one separate point of sale, in a prominent place in the store, where they are placed and the products are made available to the consumer public.
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