Enough with diplomacy: Why does a diplomat raise prices precisely for Passover?

Why would a diplomat raise the prices of tuna, cornflakes and ketchup in March, what example can we give our children - and how does all this relate to Passover?

All the reasons that make the Israeli consumer the most sucker in the world.

Are you expensive in the supermarket?

You have not seen anything yet

Nir Kipnis

25/01/2022

Tuesday, 25 January 2022, 09:27 Updated: 10:09

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It is funny to write about spring at the height of the cold and rainy week of the year, but it is closely related to the horizontal rise in prices in the Israeli economy. Price increase of almost 3%: Inflation in Israel is relatively moderate compared to what is happening in the US, but still exists. The current, this time of Diplomat brands.

But those 3 percent join the price increases from Snow, Osem, Shestovich, Diplomat - and this is only a partial list because the beverage companies are also heating up engines (plus the tax on sugary drinks) and the domino effect will only expand.

There are price increases that we have no choice but to grit our teeth and absorb - for example an increase of almost 5% in the price of electricity (in the cold month of the year) is an increase that is difficult to avoid, but in stark contrast, the increase in prices of various products in the supermarket is closely related to Accuracy: Why probably not done this time as well.

An alleged diplomat who informed retailers of a price increase starting in March was supposed to be deterred: only two months ago, its CEO, Noam Weiman, was questioned by the competition authority on suspicion of price coordination.

Diplomat is an importer of a variety of well-known brands: Kellogg's breakfast cereals, ketchup and other Heinz sauces, Starkist tuna, Pringles snacks, etc. The price of all these brands will increase by between 4.5% -7% - and there will be other brands that will become even more expensive. .

If you think the supermarket has become a more expensive place to spend time, you have not seen anything yet - February, March and April are about to express the price increases that have occurred a little (relative to expected) in the field and much more in the media, in a way that hurts for themselves.

The queue that will lengthen, ahead of Passover, in front of the food centers of the aid organizations, can only be imagined.

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Tuna Starkist, is expected to increase by 4.5% (Photo: Tuna Starkist)

The increase in the price of a father (and also a mother)

Imagination is also a necessary tool to understand the following point: the Israeli need to fill the cart, the refrigerator and the Shabbat or holiday table. When we ask ourselves why prices in Israel are so high compared to Europe and North America, which abound in rich countries, we are talking about objective reasons such as transportation costs and training costs - to economic reasons such as concentration, protective caps and more. What is usually not taken into account is our mentality.

Although this column is now read by those who have not yet turned 18 and those who have already crossed the age of 80, I allow myself to talk about a collective "parent generation", one that knew scarcity at some point in its life and did everything to make us live a life of abundance.

It does not matter if you grew up on "We Satisfied and We Are Allowed by God" in a chassidic melody or on "Fill Asmino Bar, our kitchen is pioneering Eastern European style, on our DNA burned the need for abundance, the fear of scarcity - and sorry for the link to sources, but I will also explain it immediately - the same scarcity about which the almost-casual sentence in the Passover Haggadah is said: "And Jacob and his sons came down from Egypt."

How do Jewish sources connect to a diplomat's announcement to raise prices in March? The same biblical episode that begins with the migration

to

abundance is the one that actually opens the Passover Tractate, the holiday of spring, or in translation for retail: the season of loading the carts in the supermarket.

We will get to them soon too) are good at wanting to raise a price, but the timing chosen is not accidental: it is aimed precisely at the day when we will start filling the carts without checking too much the price tag.

This is why various manufacturers and importers have sat (some are still sitting) on ​​the fence: they are waiting to land the blow on us for a moment when what will interest us is the refreshments for the Purim party coming Seder night - and then on Passover kosher products that confuse the consumer with their prices.

This sounds sophisticated, even cynical, but believe me, things are going up in the board meetings of all the companies wherever they are: after Passover, we will all publish a price survey, one in which retailers are tested - who may prefer to absorb some of the price increases to get "cheapest for Passover" - And in any case they will focus the fire on them.

Cornflakes: Kellogg's breakfast cereals are about to rise by 6% (Photo: ShutterStock)

The cart travels no stop

We promised to be required by the reasons of importers and manufacturers for the price increases - and we must admit that they are very good. Production or imports have become more expensive, and they are not here to lose, right? So yes, this is the truth but not the whole truth, which is sometimes worse than a complete lie.

Why not the whole truth? Because there is not a single entity that believes that a diplomat, that Stowitz, Snow, Osem or any other entity should not make a profit: it has employees who are paid, it has expenses and it also has owners. It is clear to all of us that whoever earns a shekel and its costs have jumped by half a shekel, will have to raise a price. On the other hand, from someone who earns a thousand shekels for every sale, one can expect him to earn 999.5 shekels, that is, he will absorb the increase in price and not be in a hurry to pass it on to his loyal consumer.

But alas: almost all the food companies, even those that were public, made sure to delete themselves from the stock market, so that almost all the major players in the industry were in private hands, that is - we have no idea if they earn a penny that they have to charge us more, or sums A replica that must make them see us too.

I hope you do not accuse me of too extreme communism if I bet that at the end of the retail food chain sit very rich people who may not enjoy seeing us squirming at the supermarket checkouts, but still prefer these sights over a slightly leaner profit line in their reports.

Which Pringles do you like?

Expensive or very expensive?

Potential price increase of 7% (Photo: ShutterStock)

Golda and the consumer default

And since I am not such a socialist, I do not want an official to supervise them (assuming their activity is legal of course), since the only entity that needs to be supervised is us, the consumers.

Is there a more Israeli look than a couple standing in line with a supermarket cart overflowing, sometimes even two and complaining about how expensive everything is?

Yes, this is a ceremony we usually do after we fill the cart, instead of before we reach for the shelf and load it without a bill, or as if the bill is not waiting for us a few dozen meters away.

Remember the "storm" brand ice cream parlors around the public "Golda" raised the price per kilogram browsing to over 100 shekels how they kidnapped on social networks, right?

So that, the network might have spent their few days of discomfort, but as a result As a result, they have become one of the most sought-after dishes on the delivery platforms, as if even those whose ice cream is not their favorite dessert,

And what happened when the price of tomatoes soared?

Has not the customer been interviewed who said: "Yes, dear, but what - we will not prepare a kitchen for Friday?"

And when it's our consumer attitude, the rage stays on social media.

Heinz ketchup, which is expected to increase by 4.5%.

Will you settle for a replacement or will you be suckers again? (Photo: AP)

When mom and dad are wasteful

We can shout until tomorrow, even blame the government, but this - if it does nothing about it, then there is nothing to expect from it in the first place - and even if it does, the first results will be seen only in a few months - that is dozens of weekly purchases in the supermarket .

Blaming the citizen is the easiest thing, but since the manufacturers and importers spit in our faces - and the government - which will commit suicide on its right to appoint the next Norwegian minister - does not do too much, we are left, if not with the blame then at least with the responsibility.

If we continue to hide behind excuses like "kids only love barn ketchup" or "they prefer Pringles chips," then we are maintaining the mentality that has made the Israeli consumer the most fucked up in the world.

But, if we do the opposite, we have a chance: it's time to educate the children to be wise consumers - if we are the desert generation, at least they will reach the Promised Land: Mom and Dad buy the brand that tastes less to you because the importer of the other brand decided to be a pig.

Literally.

This is not going to be an easy task, but it is on the shoulders of us all.

Want the upcoming Passover to really be Freedom Day?

So here we are - we have opened in the sources in which we will also end: If the children of Israel had won the desert debate and returned to the pot of meat, as they demanded from Moses, then we and our sons and our sons would have been slaves to this day.

Even if Pesach is still a long way off, it is time to remember that only those who are willing to eat for butter, even as a consumer-educational act, will end up at the edge of the desert - or at least at the checkout - as winners.

• Of money

• consumption

Tags

• diplomat

• barn

• Snow

• Stowitz

• Shestovich

• Cost of living

• Passover