09:59 PM
Monday 31 October 2022
Books – Mahmoud Abdel Rahman:
On the corner of a shop on Abdel Aziz Street in the downtown area, Farid Sayed, manager of a company selling electrical and electronic devices, stood waiting for customers to come to break the stagnation that the most famous market in Egypt has been suffering from, over the past months, as a result of many successive crises, which began with the outbreak of war The Russian-Ukrainian and the suspension of supply chains, leading to the scarcity of the dollar, and the depreciation of the pound compared to the dollar, which exceeded 24 pounds.
“Every dollar increases prices,” says Farid, who, over the past months, used to be satisfied with answering the calls of his company’s customers from most governorates, to inquire about product prices and availability: “People kept calling and asking and closing, there was no buying or selling,” he recalls the state of the market before The outbreak of these crises, and the heavy turnout by electrical appliance dealers: “We did not know how to block orders because of pressure,” unlike the current period.
Farid, who has been working on Abdel Aziz Street for more than 15 years, added that many major supplier companies have set a rate ranging between 3 to 5% on all the products they sell, following the recent increase in the price of the dollar: “They did a calculation like this, The dollar was worth the same, now its price is the same, and the rate of increase is expected to be reached,” he explained, explaining that the market lacks tools for price control: “Shop dealers are forced to sell according to the price that came down from the company.”
The repeated rises in the price of the dollar, which led to price fluctuations, prompted many major electrical appliance companies to stop selling temporarily, in order to put in place a list of new prices after the dollar price reached 24 pounds, Farid says: “The companies closed the system on products and all we talk to someone says be patient. He explained: This closure contributed to the disappearance of goods from stores, exacerbating the state of stagnation.
“The prices have more than doubled, and people are not at their best,” says Muhammad Adel, who works in one of the shops on Abdulaziz Street, and believes that this rise was the reason for the final reluctance of citizens to buy at the present time. Go cold,” due to the slight increase in prices: “in products that were more than 500 pounds and a thousand products,” in contrast to the current time when some products have seen a price increase twice, “in a day and night we meet a need that increased by 3 thousand pounds at once.” Which is not accepted by the customer and therefore he will be forced not to buy.
Adel added, that this unprecedented rise prompted citizens to search for the lowest-priced products, regardless of the quality of the product itself. He remembers one of the families who asked him for a list of prices, and chose the lowest, “the father when he enters asks about prices and then chooses the low price,” explaining In some types, the price of the refrigerator has reached 20,000 pounds: “At the present time, the lowest bridal appliance is not less than 60,000 pounds,” Adel says.