MRP is the Must Read Part of a Packed product

Here MRP is Maximum Random Pricing: Bar coded stickers fool consumers

Vaatupura A. Jayaprakash

It works like this: the seller will develop a bar coded price sticker with a price tag raised by five to ten percent of the actual price of the product. And they stick this price tag right over the price sticker of the product packed leaving no room the buyer to see the actual price. There will be two prices on the newly installed sticker.

At a time when retailers vie hard to woo as many customers as possible and keep them as loyal to shop for ages by redefining MRP into Minimum Retail Price and Maximum Reduced Price, instead of going for the conventions definition, Maximum Retail Price, here in this part of the world a leader supermarket is found to be selling certain products above the retail price. It may sound strange but happens in broad daylight and the consumers are plainly hoodwinked to believe that the price offered is much less the actual MRP.

It works like this: the seller will develop a bar coded price sticker with a price tag raised by five to ten percent of the actual price of the product. And they stick this price tag right over the price sticker of the product packed leaving no room the buyer to see the actual price. There will be two prices on the newly installed sticker. The offer price will be a one or 2 percent less than the arbitrarily raised MRP. And the consumers, seeing the reduction in the MRP feel happy and blindly shop from the same super market.

Sometimes some products with longer shelf life may happen to have price rise made by the manufacturer, and in such cases the revised price will be reprinted on the packet itself. Here also the retailer does not have the authority to hide the actual price. But ordinary consumers hardly take any risk to check printed price on the packet, rather they just look at the bar coded sticker pull in things off the rack blindly. They thus become part a huge corporate crime called smaller “raises for bigger returns”.

Here I would like to describe the experience had had from a leading supermarket, en route Government Medical College, Gandhinagar Kottayam, Kerala. I bought a product called Pazham Varatty, a ready-to-eat fruit delicacy, manufactured by Manjilas, and the product was actually priced Rs. 60. And the actual price area was covered with a bar coded sticker which carried two prices: the one for MRP Rs. 65 and, there was a special offer price dished out by this particular seller which was Rs. 65.5.  

But when my wife simply lifted the bar coded sticker back home, she found to her dismay that Rs. 4.5 was looted along with the actual margin the manufacturer offers. Actually this same product may cost more now since the manufacturing date was November 2012 and the shelf value of the product was 12 months. However, how rightful is the seller to hide the MRP and fix one according to his wish and greed, and cheat customers by giving them an impression that they get things cheap? This is happening around us, and I request all consumers to ask for the actual price of the product if the price area on the packet is willfully hidden.

The sorry thing is that when I took this to the notice of the manufacture via email and SMS, they sounded really shocked but I haven’t got any reply from them as yet. I assume that they are hand in glow with the retailers. Let them be, but we consumers cannot collude with this sales fraud.

This small trick with bar coding may be looting millions off the purse of unsuspecting consumers. So please be conscious of this pitfall and be on guard when it comes to real life shopping. There are people who fleece you in broad day light. MRP is Must Read Part of the product. Please note.