Price Cap in Grocery Stores Comes into Effect

Starting today, Tuesday, people will pay the same amount as on October 15, 2021, for granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower cooking oil, pork legs, chicken breast, semi-skimmed cow’s milk, as well as chicken backs. These prices have been frozen to those of October 15, 2021. Domestic stores even have to put a sign at their entrances to inform customers of the price freeze on the seven staple foods. Lidl and Spar introduced quantity restrictions in response, and Tesco announced special promotions.

This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.

The prices of the following listed products: granulated sugar, wheat flour, sunflower cooking oil, pork leg, chicken breasts, semi-skimmed cow’s milk, and chicken backs must be the same as the prices on October 15th last year from today until May 1st. If they were offered at a discounted price at that time, they must revert to the normal pre-promotion price for three months.

Stores should stock these products in sufficient quantities, although many of them have limited prices, as the current purchase price is higher than the consumer price in mid-October last year, especially in small stores, the portal 24.hu points out.

If the current store price cannot be determined for any reason, the average consumer prices for October 2021 published on the Central Statistical Office website shall be used.

Since many small stores can buy the products affected by the price freeze from their suppliers at a higher price than they sell them for, the strange situation arises that these store owners prefer to go to a discounter and buy the goods there. For this reason, Lidl has also introduced a quantity restriction.

Many of them already charge lower prices than the official price to attract competition. Lidl’s current flyer carries the slogan: “Prices are frozen.”

In addition, Tesco also offers special prices in the February 3rd newspaper: UHT brand milk 2.8% for 206 forints, Tesco brand flour for 149 forints, and cooking oil for 569 forints (HUF  479 with Clubcard).

Meanwhile, Spar has also announced a quantity restriction on products regulated by an official government pricing decision in all its stores from February 1, 2022.

“Spar Hungary’s most important goal is to provide the widest possible range of customers with fresh, high-quality products in the quantities they need. In view of the great interest, we have decided to introduce a quantity restriction for products with official prices as of February 1. With this decision, we want to ensure that everyone has access to the affected products in household quantities as usual,” says Márk Maczelka, Head of Communications at Spar Hungary.

From February 1st, the supermarket chain will introduce the following quantity limits until they are lifted: 10 kilograms of wheat flour and granulated sugar, 10 liters of sunflower oil, and 12 liters of cow’s milk (2.8%). The maximum amount that can be purchased at once is 10 kg for pork legs and 3 kg for chicken breasts and chicken backs.

Featured image: Officially priced wheat flour in the Príma store in Corvin Plaza in Budapest, on February 1, 2022. Photo by Zoltán Balogh/MTI