JEDDAH, Jul 22 (Arab News): Taking advantage of the buying spree for the upcoming month of Ramadan, a number of foodstuffs shops in Riyadh have announced reductions of about 50 percent on certain products whose validity dates are about to expire.

Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper said it had made a tour of a number foodstuffs shops and found out that many of the goods displayed on shelves had only few days for their sell-by date to expire.

“The salesmen in such shops were trying to lure consumers into buying these commodities through the reduction in their prices,” the newspaper said.

It found that the salesmen were busy mixing goods about to perish with those having longer validity dates so people would buy them without noticing their sell-by dates.

The newspaper said the salesmen denied that they were cheating buyers and were only coming up with a new method to dispose of goods with imminent expiration dates.

“We are not exploiting the buyers who are making use of these reductions,” one merchant said.

Hassan Naser, one of the merchants, told the Arabic daily they frequently take inventory of old stocks to sell them at reduced prices. “These goods have their customers who buy and consume them before they expire,” he said.

Asked if the consumers would know about the expiry dates, Hassan said many of them do not look for the stamp showing the date of expiry but immediately buy the items when they see the low price.

The newspaper said a number of consumers have asked the monitoring authorities to intensify their inspection tours of the markets in order to protect them against cheaters.

The newspaper pointed out that for approving reduction sales, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has made it a condition on the merchants to present bills and price lists before and after reduction to be scrutinized by market regulators.

Al-Eqtisadiah quoted economic researcher Muhammad Al-Zahranib as saying in a study that the ministry, with its current organizational structure and limited staff, is unable to control prices.

Al-Zahranib said the ministry simply does not have the techniques to stop the steady increase in prices.

“Price control needs a large and strong human and technical apparatus, which is not now available with the ministry,” he told the newspaper.