Dear importer, we will meet at six after the war

If we did not accept the stories about the costs of transportation and rising prices of raw materials as an excuse for rising prices, then the war in Ukraine has changed the rules a bit.

Whoever has to raise a price, with dignity - but everything is registered and when a ceasefire arrives, we will sue you back every shekel

Liat Ron

09/03/2022

Wednesday, 09 March 2022, 14:19 Updated: 14:25

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Even the most optimistic experts agree that there is no escape - the rise in prices is already here - and it will be sharp, painful and global.

It can be admitted with a heavy heart that the war on the cost of living in Israel is not relevant at the moment, due to the battles in Ukraine and the global shortage.

When there is not enough wheat, cereals, corn, potatoes, eggs and cheese, when gas and oil supplies from Ukraine are shut down and Russia is confiscated, and with them the iron and coal supplies also stop, everything goes up (and will go up) much more.

Local importers and food producers, who intended to raise prices and were halted by consumer protest, now have a real reason to do so, because before, somehow, most of their arguments sounded like a collection of excuses gleaned here and there to justify the rise, prompting some executives to investigate.

But after Putin's invasion of Zalanski's country, crushing lawsuits that worked excellently, such as "rising transportation costs" and "rising commodity prices," sound like yesterday's headlines.

Now we are talking about the price of a barrel of oil, which flew up after the embargo imposed by the US on Russian oil, (kissing, at the moment, to $ 123). , Water, along the entire value chain, up to the consumer's pocket.

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When the guns are roaring, the wise consumer is silent, but the war will end - and then we will make sure that every shekel of a drop in the price of a barrel of oil is returned to our pocket (Photo: ShutterStock, Doron Shiner)

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But if someone in the managements of the big monopolies and giant corporations, who both produce, import and market what we put in our carts, and also sweep huge sums into their bank accounts, thinks the global situation will put us into a coma, he is not only wrong but taking a big risk.

Just as oil knows how to leap sharply upwards it also knows how to crash with its nose into the ground, like at the end of March 2020, in the midst of the first corona wave, when a barrel cost only $ 23.

And just as commodity prices are sky-high, they can also plunge into the abyss, and when that happens - and it will happen sooner or later - because that's how it is in the economy, we'll be here and wait to see what you do, and if you're fair.

Because raising prices is easy to get used to, but you seem to have forgotten how it feels when you lower them.

How do I know?

Maybe because whenever there was a tariff reduction here it somehow rolled over to you but not to the customer, when raw material prices were low, you always found an intelligent way to explain why the price of the products did not go down.

When the dollar crashed, there was not a single importer, righteous in Sodom, who rolled a 20% erosion in the dollar against the shekel (you know what? Even half of it!) Back into our pocket.

This time too, some of you have ready-made excuses (have you heard of the meager increase in the minimum wage? Wait for the next time the issue of the cost of living will be on the agenda) but so far.

We, the media and consumers, have grown up - and we are here with a calculator in hand and an open notebook, to demand that you give us back everything you take now.

When the echoes of the explosions from Kiev arrive in Israel, we understand what a poor excuse is and what a justifiable reason is, and whoever tries to sell an excuse to keep prices high when costs fall back, we will come to terms with it.

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