Troukler
SUPASAVE IS NOT WHAT IT WAS CUT OUT TO BE!
If the President of the Republic and the cabinet of Ministers were expecting the newly opened super market, Supasave, to be a new dawn in retail shopping then there must be an awful lot of disappointed, albeit still powerful, people in the country today. A quick look around the shop will show what it is I want to convey to the readers.
The super- save concept which I believe the owners of the retail outlet are attempting to convey can only be a distant reality. The fact is that prices of certain commodities are impossible to comprehend, either the man behind the calculator is getting it seriously wrong or someone somewhere is making a quick kill; Seychellois are soft targets seems to be the thinking.
Supasave, like SMB, is now above the law of the land. In its daily operations Supasave is contravening the Food Act by not specifying clearly for its customers, people that Mr. Michel has a heart for, the expiry date of its products in English, French or Creole when all other retailers are under the obligation to do so according to Law. Bakers for an example are obliged to mark their produce giving these details. Does the Consumer Protection Unit know the road to Supasave, I do not believe so, because by now this issue should have been sorted out.
Or maybe they are being advised to hold back on that one. If yes, by whom? If no, now CPU has good reasons to call on them. I am sure the intervention of the President of the Republic is not required to deal with that situation……! And to make matters worse in the last two weeks Supasave have been selling tinned salmon, beyond its sell-by date. The interesting thing about the tined salmon is that it has two sell by dates – one for UAE (which has expired) and one for the lesser mortals. More interestingly the date provided for UAE comes with production date and the one for the lesser mortals, which is in less bold print, has no production date. A friend of mine confided in me that he has bought one for SR10. Ten rupees? Seriously? Ten times more than 27acres of prime property at La Misere? He has accepted to keep it as proof in case there is a need to go to court on that one, not the land, the new owners have got that one wrapped up.
The other government body which has not found the road to Supasave is the Price Control Unit. One obvious example is that one day Supasave sold a packet of 10 Caprisone juice at SR26/-, a few weeks later at SR30/- and a week later at SR50/-, when taxes on fruit juices have decreased. The same with ‘Elle et Vire’ cream; shops all over Mahe sell it at SR36/- but at Supasave its over SR50/-. “A heart for every Seychellois?” More like a big heart for Supasave!