Another supermarket chain freezes prices

Migros, one of the largest supermarkets with nearly 3,000 outlets across Türkiye, has joined a hard discount retailer in freezing prices on stable products.

Migros has announced that it will freeze prices on 419 products while offering discounts between 25 percent to 50 percent for other goods under 23 different ranges of products during the month of January. It will also offer discounts for more than 3,000 private-label products on its shelves.

Earlier this month, hard discount retailer Şok said it would freeze prices on 1,000 items during January.

The moves by the retailers came after Trade Minister Mehmet Muş held a meeting on Dec. 26, 2022, with the executives of the four largest supermarkets.

At the meeting, Muş warned against price adjustments after the minimum wage was raised by 54.3 percent for 2023 to a net of 8,500 Turkish Liras.

Some supermarket chains increased their prices after the minimum wage hike, which drew criticism from consumers.

The government has been cautioning retailers against price gauging and authorities conducted thousands of inspections at supermarkets to check prices last year.

If supermarkets act jointly in offering discounts, this will have an impact on the prices of suppliers and producers, Aydın Ağaoğlu, the president of the Consumers' Confederation told daily Milliyet. "This, in return, will provide some relief to consumers who suffer from high inflation. We, as consumers, expect other supermarkets to follow suit," he said.

The prize freezes offered by Migros and Şok came at a time when the annual inflation rate slowed sharply from 84.4 percent in November 2022 to 64.3 percent last month. The monthly increase in consumer prices also eased from 2.88 percent to 1.18 percent.