Spar Plattekloof is one of 30 supermarkets under investigation for so-called price gouging on price-controlled essentials during the Covid-19 outbreak.
On Thursday March 19, government warned against unjustified price hikes on essentials goods during the outbreak.
National Consumer Commission spokeswoman Phetho Ntaba said they had received several complaints about excessive price hikes from consumers on items such as hand sanitiser, masks and toilet paper, among other items.
However, Coenraad Groenewald, the manager of the Spar on the corner of Olienhout and Plattekloof roads, said he had resorted to buying hand sanitisers from the back of a bakkie to a different supplier to meet his customers’ needs after the store’s usual supplier had been unable to do so after their regular suppliers of hand santisers could not supply them.
Mr Groenewald’s bookkeeper, Nicole Mackenzie, said they had only had sales of hand sanitiser between March and June last year due to the water shortages.
She said they were selling sanitiser at a price equivalent to that which they had last sold it at during the water shortage.
Mr Groenewald said he joined Spar in 2005. He and his family have owned Spar Plattekloof since 2015.
Mr Goenewald said the investigation resulted from an unsubstantiated complaint lodged against them at the consumer board regarding their pricing structure with regards to sanitiser.
Despite having supplied all relevant information to substantiate their selling prices, which were within recommended profit margins, they had heard nothing more from the consumer board, he said.
Mr Groenewald said that in between calls from customers asking him how many shoppers were in the store and requests to deliver groceries to the elderly, he was extremely upset that the board had named businesses under investigation.
“We believe this is premature and extremely damaging. We have initiated legal procedures and made contact with the Human Rights Commission,” said Mr Groenewald.
Ms Ntaba defined an excessive price hike in terms of current regulations undersaid the Consumer Protection Act was very clear on hiking prices on goods and services during a national disaster.
An unacceptable price increase, she said, was one that did not correspond to or was not equivalent to the increase in the cost of providing that good or service, or increased the net margin mark-up on that good or service above average margin or mark-up for that good or service in the three month period prior to Sunday March 1.
Ms Ntaba said that if found guilty, Spar Plattekloof’s owners could face a fine of up to R1 million or up to 10% of the firm’s turnover or one year imprisonment.
Mandy Hogan, from Spar Group, said its stores were individually owned. She the group’s investigation found that Mr Groenewald had run out of hand sanitiser and in order to continue supplying the public he had replenished his stock with a different brand at a different price from a supplier he hadn’t dealt with before.
Ms Ntaba said consumers could lodge complaints to Complaints@thencc.org.za or call 0800 014 880.