This morning the Medellín mayor’s office sent a message indicating that the commerce in the city center “it will maintain prices from the previous year during the school season of 2023” in clear allusion to the nearly 2,300 stationery merchants and school supplies distributors.
“The merchants of the Center of Medellín are prepared for the school season and that they will freeze 2022 prices during January and February to stay competitive. In addition, they indicate that they will offer discounts, especially in the second-hand market of the La Bastilla Passage” read the document issued by the Center’s Management.
The matter is not minor if one takes into account that for this school season, according to the municipality, expected to generate $500 billion in salessince this season represents about 40% of the annual sales of said market in the center that can generate 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
However, all the merchants consulted were surprised by the announcement because none of them knew about it and also, contrary to what the administration said, they indicated that in most cases they will have to raise prices because textbooks and literature are arriving with increases that force the value to be transferred to end users.
For example, the saleswoman of an establishment in La Bastille indicated that in textbooks the price increase has exceeded more than 30%, going from $25,000 to $35,000. “And the second-hand books are almost reaching the price of the new ones,” he pointed out.
In another store, another saleswoman indicated that the prices of some books they have risen from one week to the next up to $5,000. “Besides, there is another thing and that is that the publishers no longer supply us but go directly to sell the books to the schools. And here the client comes and jumps at us, ”he added.
A seller of the traditional ticket stressed that in 2022 the books went up three times making a text that Before it was worth $35,000 it was around $59,000. “It is that they are no longer doing reprints of other texts and that also makes it hard for us to sustain the discount,” he complained.
Sellers also complain that in these days of the school season have been rather regular, because compared to previous years, its shelves do not register as much movement. They appreciate that the registers move thanks to the sale of literature, because if it were for the sale of school textbooks, the outlook would be bleaker.
Similar happens with the used book exchanges, which fortunately still take place, helping bookstores to stock up on texts that no longer reach them.
According to the latest surveys by Fenalco Antioquia in Medellín and Valle de Aburrá, 70% of parents prefer to buy school supplies in January. Of these, 35% prefer to buy their school supplies in the premises of the Center of Medellín. In fact, the average consumption per student in Medellín and Valle de Aburrá It would be between $100,000 and $300,000.
However, these figures could be reduced because, contrary to what the administration promised, prices are flying like sheets of paper in the wind.