THE E-KALATHI IS A HOLE - THE PLATFORM IS WITHOUT FRESH MEAT - Filenews 10/4 by Angelos Nikolaou
The daily visit of consumers to supermarkets is evolving into a labyrinth for strong nerves, as the much-advertised e-kalathi seems to be unable to fulfil its main purpose of fully and transparently informing the citizen.
The biggest thorn in the side of the online platform remains the deafening absence of fresh meat, a basic diet that absorbs a significant part of the family budget.
The Consumer Protection Service of the Ministry of Commerce is in the crosshairs of criticism, as the failure to include meat prices on the website and in the app leaves citizens essentially unprotected.
Without the possibility of preliminary market research from home, consumers are faced with price shocks directly in store refrigerators, unable to effectively compare the huge discrepancies recorded between different supermarkets.
Market research demonstrates a chaotic situation in meat prices, with fluctuations causing vertigo. It is characteristic that for the same product, the difference can even exceed 100%.
The inability of e-kalathi to integrate this data deprives the citizen of the only weapon he has against accuracy, i.e. comparison.
The huge fluctuations observed, such as in ground beef where the price per kilo starts from €8.50 and skyrockets to €18.95, prove that the absence of control and immediate information hits the pocket of the average household hard.
e-kalathi offers consumers the opportunity to be informed in real time about the prices and availability of basic consumer products in the major supermarkets of Cyprus, both nationwide and by district.
Through the platform, consumers can easily compare product prices per store, as well as the cost of baskets of selected products, thus making more advantageous purchases and strengthening their position in the market.
However, until the inclusion of meat in the e-kalathi, the electronic basket will remain half empty, leaving the market to operate on terms that only do not work for the benefit of the consumer.
Furthermore, for each basket created by consumers, it is possible to be immediately informed about the total cost of the basket of products available in all contracted stores/supermarkets.
In addition, consumers have the possibility to compare the cost of the basket for all products only in the stores where it is available.
It is noted that the prices of the products on the platform are updated almost in real time at the base, when there is a price change in a product in one of the stores of each supermarket.
Price updates are achieved through a special behind-the-scenes mechanism that sends the new prices directly from the supermarket to the platform.
