Lambert Brown, Guest Columnist
THIS IS the season for big spending. Those who "have not" will be spending even that which they don't have, while those who have will be making more from the spending of the masses.
Once again December will be a month of record high supply of money in circulation. Shops and stores will be open late right up to Christmas morning as the 'X' replaces Christ as the appropriate prefix in Christmas.
Unfortunately, the good tidings of great joy, which should be for all people, have effectively gone overwhelmingly to the merchants.
This, however, need not be the case. There can be no sale or purchase without a consumer. The consumer is essential if the marketplace is to function. Regrettably, the Jamaican consumers do not appreciate how powerful they are and how dependent businesses are on them.
Too often as consumers we accept high prices, shoddy quality goods and poor service in return for our hard earned money without redress or protest.
In developed countries the consumers tend to recognise this power and use it to their advantage. In the recent presidential race in the United States, consumers representing the Democratic Party used their power to force the Sinclair Broadcasting Group (SBG) to change its policy of how it campaigned against John Kerry.
The 'free market' works best where there are at least two vital factors.
These are firstly, "full information" to the consumers on what goods /services are available, where they are available and what price they are being sold for. Secondly, the provision of "choice" to the consumers is crucial.
Armed with this knowledge, consumers will make the decisions that they think are in their best interest. This is what happened when we got the information and the right to choose which telephone company with which we wanted to do business. The ending of the monopoly on telephone services undoubtedly benefited individual consumers as well as the country.
IMBROGLIO
The recent imbroglio at the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) came about, in my view, because Minister Phillip Paulwell did not understand how the free market works. The Government sought to follow the populist path of declaring price controls rather than trusting the consumers to make rational decisions on their own behalf.
Vegetables and fruits are perishable items with short shelf lives. If supermarket owners seek to 'jack up' prices, it is for the consumers to boycott the items and allow them to rot, thus causing a loss for the 'price gougers'.
In reality, the CAC brouhaha is only a symptom of a confused government pretending to be market-oriented while steeped in bureaucratic methods of governance.
The Government's attitude to the people of Portmore is yet another example of not trusting the consumers. Here they are seeking to impose a toll road on the consumers of the Sunshine City without providing proper choice of an alternative road within the area of the toll road, as the law requires.
The toll road will be a monopoly in which the government will be a beneficiary and so not be able to be an impartial referee, between the citizens and the toll road operators.
HIGH LIGHT BILLS
If you have any doubt about the deleterious effect the absence of choice has on the consumers, go and ask the scores of consumers who demonstrated against high light bills of the JPS in Spanish Town recently. If you are still in doubt ask the thousands of consumers who have little or no recourse against the JPS and the exorbitantly high light bills they are currently receiving.
The promises of great services are yet to be fulfilled while we pay through our noses for a level of service that would not be accepted in the home country of the new owners of the JPS.
The Jamaican consumer needs to wake up and start making a difference. Each of us needs to take a stand against high prices, shoddy goods and poor services.
Recently, I went to a fast food establishment in Portmore to purchase fish sandwiches. The cashier after collecting my money literally dumped the sandwiches on me. I asked her if she wasn't going to wish that I enjoy the meal. Her response, "me nah wish no body no good, mi nuh feel good tonight'. I considered her response an example of poor service.
WON'T TAKE ANY CHANCES
This consumer and my family will not purchase from that enterprise again. I have also encouraged my friends to join the boycott. I frankly don't know what else might have been affected in preparing the sandwiches because she "she nuh feel good tonight".
I won't take any chance in the future. Business people must properly train their staff and monitor the quality of services offered by them.
If each consumer responds, with his/her power of choice, in deciding whether or not to buy at a particular price, quality or place of business I am sure that this Christmas and beyond the consumer will get more for less, rather than less for more as is now the order of the day.
Lambert Brown is first vice-president of the University and Allied Workers Union and can be contacted at labpoyh@yahoo.com.
