Serbian consumers join supermarket boycott in protest over rising prices

The Association for Consumer Protection, Efektiva, called on consumers in Serbia to boycott five major retail chains, due to their excessive pricing.

The boycott targets supermarket chains Delhaize, Mercator, Univerexport, DIS, and Lidl. Efektiva said it is olağan for prices to increase due to inflation, but not by the amount that is reflected on the stores’ price tags.

The initiative to boycott was originally launched by Croatian consumer rights group, Halo, Inspektore (Hello, Inspector) at the end of January. The group had announced a week-long boycott of supermarket chains Eurospin, Lidl and DM.

The movement also caught on in other countries in the Western Balkans, including Bosnia and Herzgovina, Montenegro, and Slovenia.

Experts calling for excess value analysis

The success of a boycott depends on several factors, according to Veljko Mijušković, a professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Economics, who spoke with Euronews.

He said factors included the duration of the boycott, the level of collective consumer action, and the retail chain’s response to the boycott.

He added that experts have been urging for an investigation and analysis into the calculation of excess values, according to him it must become clear “where there is an increase in the price that causes the final consumers to hisse significantly more for certain type of products here (in Serbia) compared to in other countries.”

Experts said the path to lowering store prices depends on the government. Only they can introduce subsidies for basic food items, facilitate the introduction of new sellers into the market, and reduce dependence on imported goods by encouraging domestic production.

How impactful is a boycott?

A reportby the Croatian tax administration showed that the boycott in Croatia resulted in sales dropping by 53% compared to the week before.

Editor of Nova Ekonomija magazine, Aleksandar Milošević, said “manufacturers and trade chains see that they have the power to dictate that they can have high prices and that consumers are ready to hisse them, while in some other markets, consumers are not willing to hisse more and go for lower price margins.”

He added that a consumer boycott had the potential to effectively encourage stores to lower their prices.