Some shop keepers here are wonderful

[sophie]

I decided this morning to go and buy a new vacuum cleaner. Visited one or two stores that mustn't be mentioned I gather and checked on prices. In one store there was a 50% mark from the price tag on the machine. In the second, the price tag had been pulled off and a quick check on their computer showed a 100% increase. Politely thanked them and left. Quick visit up to my friendly neighbourhood family run Grundig and Blomberg franchise. After having opened 6 or more boxes of vacuums spread all over the floor, I decided what I wanted. I asked the price which was exactly the same as it was 3 months ago. "No increase?" says I "Not until I order new stock in" That's why I usually don't bother to shop around. He also makes a decent cup of Mehmet Efendi coffee served with iced water!! Love it.

[kiplet]

Thanks Sophie..
Directions please..shop worth encouraging. I need a new washing machine...

[sophie]

Go to the bottom of the GAU road, turn left and then immediately turn right and it faces you. Off road parking. Husband called Ihsan and wife Gul. I forgot to mention, if you ask him nicely, he will change 2 pin into 3 pin for you. Have also pm'd you.

[come_on_aylin]

Absolutely agree, we bought an inverter air conditioning unit from there 10 days ago after one of ours packed up and then a TV on Saturday when our 2 and a half year old Philips TV was deemed irreparable by another company. We joked that we would see him next Saturday... Lovely people and the prices were not inflated.

I should add that we visited a couple of supermarkets in Karakum/Catalkoy this morning for our usual Monday shop and did not notice any increases on any of the goods we bought.

[Johnny Lee]

Used them for years . Good as Gold.

[madeincyprus]

Do they by any chance sell fridge freezers. Mine has blown up

[Deniz1]

I get what Soner said about name and shame but are we not allowed to name any shops or services that are good?

[Groucho]

Do they by any chance sell fridge freezers. Mine has blown up

Yes they do...

[tingtang]

Presumably your Grundig store prices were priced in Sterling for your new Vac Sophie which does afford them built in protection. If those other Stores you checked out also priced in Sterling then the revised prices were pure greed.

I have always been critical of shops who re-price currently held stock whenever
there is a price rise for a product (our local Pharmacy is guilty of that with as many as 3 different price labels on the boxes, how blatant is that?), but I do have sympathy for lira cash business' in this current climate as price increasing currently held stock is not due to greed but is all about survival.

tt.

[ozankoys]

I am not 100% sure but I think that medicine prices are controlled by the Government, maybe someone can confirm this?

[Groucho]

Presumably your Grundig store prices were priced in Sterling...

tt.

No, not in Sterling - all prices were in TL and had not risen... so the Grundig TV and the aircon were both at the pre-panic list price.

[sophie]

No all prices were in TL. Why did assume they will have been changed to Sterling. I think the two stores I didn't buy from could very well have changed by now though. The Grundig was in tl. My thread does say " some of the shopkeepers here are wonderful" !!!!

[madeincyprus]

Well done to the ones not being greedy. Went into a large shop this morning to purchase 2 cans of tuna. Ticket price said 11.99tl got to the till to be charged 25.99tl. Not being funny, but its the same tuna that was on the shelves on Thursday and cannot understand a 113% increase in cost.

[Holly]

Sophıe

You are correct prices have changed at xxxxx, now for 1item + 1000 tl. from where they were at weekend They have joined the gravy train !!! same as all the others.

[Keithcaley]

Well done to the ones not being greedy. Went into a large shop this morning to purchase 2 cans of tuna. Ticket price said 11.99tl got to the till to be charged 25.99tl. Not being funny, but its the same tuna that was on the shelves on Thursday and cannot understand a 113% increase in cost.

Perhaps you might like to re-read this thread...

By the way I do agree with your comments on that thread about the 300TL bag!

[Keithcaley]

Sophıe

You are correct prices have changed at xxxxx, now for 1item + 1000 tl. from where they were at weekend They have joined the gravy train !!! same as all the others.

Where do you think that they are going to find the cash to buy new stock? - to pay their increased electricity bill? - to pay the new higher minimum wage?

Have you ever run a small or medium sized business in a time of galloping inflation?

It's going to be the survival of the fittest, and the ones who don't keep up will go to the wall - you might think that the ones holding their prices down are doing you a favour, but they'll be the first to go out of business due to poor cash flow!

[sophie]

Not quite sure what you mean Holly. My point was that I called into 3 shops, the first two had increased way beyond what I felt was necessary but my Grundig Blomberg shop had not changed at all, This was yesterday afternoon.

[Holly]

Hi Sophie

Not the case today though was told the item was ex stock !!!

Keith Caley

Understand where you are coming from but if you buy at 1GBP to sell at 2GBP the same principle apples,(acceptable profit margin). To buy at 1GBP and have the item stock , then sell at 3GBP, not acceptable , this is rip off big style.

[Keithcaley]

Hi Holly, well, we all have a different take on it, all I can say is that I would not want to be running a small business in TRNC at the moment - and it does depend on what the profit margins are, of course...

100% on cost, as a margin, is unusual, I would say , around 50% on cost would be more normal, i.e. buy at 1.4 and sell at 2 or thereabouts.

If the cost price suddenly jumps from 1.4 to 2, and you continue to only sell your old stock for 2, then all of your takings are going to go on buying new stock - there will be no profit out of the sale to pay wages (even without taking the new minimum wage into account), no money to pay the electricity bill (even without taking the new electricity charges into account), no money to pay the Accountant (compulsory in TRNC), no money to pay the Rent (in Sterling, which is now so expensive to buy with Lira) or to pay Social Sigorta, or any of the myriad of other expenses attached to running a business, that no one ever thinks of (unless they have actually run a business).

I know that I sound as though I'm making excuses for them

...And the other thing to consider, is this - can a business owner be 100% confident that the fall in the value of the Lira stops here, where it is now?

Because if it continues to fall, then by the time he has sold his item at 3, he may still not have made enough cash to buy new stock and pay all of those other expenses...

Could you blame him for being 'prudent' in his estimation of the trend, and for allowing a little extra margin in order to cope with the unknown?

As I've said before, the ones that do not make the necessary price adjustments will not be there in a few months time, and there will be a lot of 'wailing and gnashing of teeth' because your favourite, local, convenient supplier, the one who gave such marvellous service is no longer there!

[sophie]

I apologise to those on this thread who obviously consider I misinformed them as to the price I paid for my new Grundig vacuum cleaner. Could only speak as I found on the day. The increase the next day could explain why the Grundig Bloomberg importer/agent was waiting quietly to speak to the owners and who joined us for coffee. It won't make me change my mind as to where to shop and what brand to buy. Super service, full length guarantees honoured etc, etc.,

[Holly]

Keith
Do not understand your mathematics if you buy at 1GBP and sell at 2 GBP profit margin is 1 GBP== acceptable
If you have stock that costs 1 GBP and then sell at 3 GBP profit margin is 2 GBP that equals rip off
New stock that costs 2 GBP to buy in the current climate the appropriate margin would then be added to the sale price normal business practice I would say

Sophie

I have used this shop many times over the years and their service has been impeccable in every respect and i cannot say otherwise

However they are jumping on the band wagon as are all the rest to make a fast buck from a very serious situation for this country and fleecing us folks in the process

Holly

[erol]

Keith
Do not understand your mathematics if you buy at 1GBP and sell at 2 GBP profit margin is 1 GBP== acceptable
If you have stock that costs 1 GBP and then sell at 3 GBP profit margin is 2 GBP that equals rip off
New stock that costs 2 GBP to buy in the current climate the appropriate margin would then be added to the sale price normal business practice I would say

Sophie

I have used this shop many times over the years and their service has been impeccable in every respect and i cannot say otherwise

However they are jumping on the band wagon as are all the rest to make a fast buck from a very serious situation for this country and fleecing us folks in the process

Holly

If a shop keeper here buys their stock in sterling at say a pound a unit back when it was 6.5TL to the pound and prices it at 13TL, then whilst the rate remains 6.5TL then their gross profit is 100%. However the minute the Sterling TL rate changes , then that gross profit margin moves accordingly. So if the rate goes overnight from 6.5TL to pound to 8.5, then the gross profit margin on the item if left priced at 13TL is under the 100%. I do not know if a given shop buys its stock in euros or pounds but it is perfectly possible they do, Certainly somewhere down the supply chain this will be true. Also imagine the shop keeper buys in sterling but with 90 days credit. Half way through the 90 days, they have sold half the stock that they bought at £1 per unit at 13 TL. However when they come to pay the bill for that stock at the end of 90 days , by converting their TL income from selling it back to Sterling, they will have taken a hit, not just on stock sold after the TL rate plummeted but also on stock sold before this. As Keith has pointed out this is looking at gross profit. If you look at net profit, after costs like electricity, fuel, rent etc etc etc the picture is even worse for the shop keeper who does not increase prices until they buy 'new stock'.

Profiteering.

Imagine a fictional expat, who's income is in sterling and thus is largely protected from the huge drops in the value of the TL. They see TL go from 6.5 TL to pound to 8.5 TL overnight. They then notice in local supermarket that the shop has not yet increased its shelf prices. So they rush out and 'stock up' on items, buying 4 or 5 times more washing powder and tea and coffee and anything else not price increased, understanding that for each pound spent they are suddenly getting 20-30% more stuff than the week before. Is this not 'profiteering'. Is it not exploiting the situation for personal profit ? It is not 'fleecing' the country and ordinary TC who can not use the leverage of having an income in sterling because their income is in TL ?

[judyvin]

Well said Erol, totally with you!
Have to say I was a bit disappointed to find my favourite Gin, Hendricks, had jumped quite considerably in price today but when you convert it back to sterling it was pretty much the same as its always been so no complaints. I hate to admit that I was just hoping to bag a bargain! I am one of those lucky brits whose income is in sterling and my heart really does go out to those whose income is in Lira, rents in sterling etc... I don't think I could sleep at night not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

[erol]

Imagine a fictional expat (exapt meaning immigrant and almost certainly economic immigrant where such means they have left one county to go to another because the new country is more economically favourable to them than the one they leave). Their income is in sterling.

It is 02 August and the sterling rate is 6.5tl to the pound. They are looking to buy a new electronic or white goods item. They go round the various shops and find what they want priced at 650tl, making the price in terms of their income currency £100. They go home to consider their options. By the 12th Aug the price of sterling has gone to 8.5tl to the pound. They go back to the shops that had the item they wanted to buy that was priced at 650TL on the 2nd. In the first shop they discover the price is now 850TL. making the price in terms of their income currency exactly the same £100 it was on the 2nd August. They scream 'profiteering' and 'rip off' and 'greedy Cypriot shop keepers' because they can not now buy the item that would have cost them £100 on the 2nd August for £76.50 now the lira has plummeted. They base these claims of the shop keeper being a greedy rip off merchant (because he has stopped them saving £24.50) because the item is 'old stock' bought by the shopkeeper before TL dropped in value but with no actual knowledge of what currency the shop keeper paid for that 'old stock', or if it has even yet been paid for but is still on credit until some later date and with no knowledge of what currency the shop keepers rent is in or a hundred other things. Basically as far as I can see they label the shop keeper greedy because they are unable to benefit from the crash in the lira to the tune of £24.50.

Shop keepers, even Cypriot ones, are not in my opinion disproportionately greedy when compared to people in general, even the subset of people that is the expat (economic migrant) community in North Cyprus. Some undoubtedly are more greedy than others and some are less so, in both groups. It does feel to me in response to the sudden and massive drop in the value of the lira we have seen over last couple of weeks, that there is some sort of dominant view (with a few notable exceptions) amongst expats here on the forum that shop keepers and especially Cypriot ones are indeed disproportionate greedy than people in general or expats (economic migrants) in general. I think this is bollocks and to me if it says anything at all it says more about that 'majority' expat community that hold such views than it does about Cypriot shopkeepers in general.

[erol]

and while I am on a roll

I think there are 'groups' that are disproportionately greedy than the wider population, groups that by being more greedy means you are more likely to be in that group and that disproportionate greed is an asset if not a requisite to being able to be in that group but shopkeepers, Cypriot or otherwise, is not imo such a group. CEO's of large corporations for example, now that is a group that I think is disproportionately greedy relative to a wider population (Cypriot or otherwise).

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... pay-centre

Chief executive pay at businesses on the FTSE 100 index surged 11% on a median basis in 2017 while average worker earnings failed to keep pace with inflation, rising just 1.7%, according to the High Pay Centre’s annual review of top pay.

[sophie]

Erol, I am suitably humbled and wish now that I hadn't paid the price (as requested by the shop keeper) for my vacuum cleaner. In fact I wish I had stuck to the old one that is still stuck up with tape.

[tingtang]

Sophie,
We have a branch of that same Franchise on the outskirts of our village who price in Sterling which is why I presumed that you had purchased that way. They are deserving of equal praise with fair prices, great service and no quibble guarantees. In fact we have had two guarantee claims one of which was an electric kettle and they offered us a loan kettle whilst it was being repaired. Sure makes a change from those many places when we attempt to return a faulty item and all we get is a shrug of the shoulders.
Generally.
It is ironic that outlets such as the above and other 'big ticket' sellers will be the worst to suffer in the coming recession. Little more than 12 months ago the TL was around 4 , now TL income and savings have been effectively halved there won't be any 'spare cash' for non essentials and i would not be wishing to be selling sofas for a living!

Whilst it is human nature to complain about price rises and to consider 'how can i best save or profit from this situation' both Keith and Erol have admirably stated the case for major price increases and there should be a better understanding of the true situation from all sides. The bottom line is that if those steps are not taken then those business' will not be there and we shall have to resort to what Ragged Robin' so aptly termed the Exchange & Mart' pages of this Forum!

It's been an interesting thread and we have all learned something from it.

tt.

[sophie]

Thanks for your message tingtang, not sure you got my point though, which was I paid the lower "pre crisis" price because that is what Ihsan asked me to pay. If he had asked the higher price then I would have paid it because I like Grundig appliances, but he didn't. The fact that I went in the day before he increased everything was just fortunate for me. I am aware of most of the complexities of the financial situation. BTW, I shall hold on to the older cleaner which still works very well, notwithstanding the bit of tape!!