School "little basket": don’t believe your eyes

Despite assurances of price cuts, data compiled by the Greek Workers’ Consumers Union show an increase of up to 34.21%.

The electronic press was filled yesterday with dissatisfaction with the statement made by the Minister of Development Kostasos Skrekas. In an interview, he stated that prices for school supplies are stable or reduced. In fact, the minister stressed that this was facilitated by the adoption of the decision on the “school basket” and the established profit margin ceiling at the level of 2021, the campaign with 800 codes of school goods. “Compared to last year, all products either remained the same or reduced prices to 19.4%,” he added, “in the basic expenses of families (ahead of the new school year) not only is there no inflation, but the cost of goods is reduced.”

Nevertheless, consumers were not too lazy and went to shops/supermarkets to check how things really are. The data collected by the Greek Working Consumers Association (Ενωση Εργαζόμενων Καταναλωτών Ελλάδος) show the exact opposite: not only did the price increase reach 34.21%, but overall goods and products became more expensive.

In particular, out of 175 products for which EEKE conducted a study directly on store shelves, 92 showed an increase compared to 2022, and 49 products had a stable price, and only 34 products showed a decrease.

By violating the terms of the ministerial decision to include school supplies in the “family/school basket”, the supermarket chains are effectively implement the program as they see fit. Characteristically, on the advertised e-katanalotis website, one supermarket chain added 7 items to the “school basket”, another added 12 items out of 5 items, and a third added only one item (school bags/briefcases and knapsacks).

Accordingly, in the “school basket”, which includes 18 chain stores, there are very few that have all the products announced last week by the Greek Ministry of Development.

20 items needed for schoolchildren:

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