Proposal 1

Some portion of inflation is caused by retailers charging higher prices than they need to. This could be discouraged by requiring the shop to show the markup on the shelf-label, beside the price. Firstly, it allows customers to see which items are being unfairly priced, and avoid buying them.

Secondly, it allows other retailers to see what the competition is paying to the supplier, in case the supplier is unfairly charging a higher price to one shop than another. This causes price deflation in the supplier market.

Proposal 2

Shoppers need an easy way to compare prices prices between sellers, without having to physically walk to each shop and take notes. In economics, this is a basic requirement for a competitive market. Large retailers should be required to submit the price of each item to a national online database. Each product has a unique bar code, so customers can instantly find the price of a given item (or their basket of items) in each shop using its bar code.

Proposal 3

Shops should be restricted from changing prices too quickly. For example if a bouquet of flowers is €10 on the 13th of Feb, it shouldn’t be €20 on the 14th, and €5 on the 15th. This is gouging. I suggest that a 10% change in 7 days is the most that is reasonable, to allow for supply or demand problems which retailers could not anticipate. This law would prevent all sorts of cynical practices - like charging high prices for a new product then reducing the price in its second week, profiteering when there is high demand, rapid price changes so that the customer can never remember what the right price is.

Shops should show the old price on the label, if it has changed in the last 7 days.

Proposal 4

Everyone should pay the same price for the same product. Shops should be forbidden from giving discounts to customers in return for their behavioural data (loyalty cards).

The loyalty card customers are not really getting a discount. The shop is not selling below cost price, as a kind of favour to the customer. Really, it has just increased the price for non-loyalty card customers, to compel them into joining the loyalty card scheme.

The second reason for the scheme is to charge a higher price to people who they think can afford it. The poorest will all join the scheme, and pay the lower price. This allows the shop to charge a much higher price to everyone else. You can have two price tiers based on the customer’s ability to pay, which is massively profitable.

There is no legitimate excuse to run a loyalty card scheme. It is always bad for customers.

Because these changes put a burden on the retailer, I propose to only apply them (at first) to large retailers above a certain floor area.

Gouging can only happen as long as customers are badly informed. The best way to stop it is requiring shops make pricing information obvious and accessible.