The Era of Counting Grains in the Mid-Summer Market
· GıdaTarım
In Izmir, due to rising food prices, shopping by weight in neighborhood markets has been replaced by purchases per piece and by gram, bringing customer traffic to a standstill.
The Era of Grams and Pieces in the Market
Rising food prices in Izmir's neighborhood markets have fundamentally changed citizens' fresh fruit and vegetable consumption habits. Traditional shopping by the kilogram has been replaced by purchases by the half-kilogram or by the piece. Consumer Kadem Dilber, who went to the market, summarized the situation with the following words:
"Can you buy three red peppers? Three red peppers, four cucumbers, you can't even get close to the fruit."
Consumer Kadem Dilber, drawing attention to cost pressures and insufficient budgets, continued his words:
"We bought tomatoes, we bought fresh beans, all of them in halves, threes and fives. Cheese has become 600 lira, we buy for 100 lira, for 200 lira. We are in the middle of summer, everything should be cheap. Nothing is below 100. He gives 23 thousand lira, buy if you can. If it weren't for the children, it would be impossible."
The Common Dilemma of Vendors and Consumers
Despite being in the middle of summer, the high prices on the stalls have also significantly reduced the sales volume for market vendors. Emphasizing the noticeable decrease in customer traffic, market vendors stated that consumers' purchasing power is eroding. A market vendor selling corn, whose name was not disclosed, conveyed the general stagnation in agricultural product retail with the following words:
"Look and see, what time is it, there are no customers in the market. What will happen, sir, everything is expensive. The largest currency unit in the Republic of Turkey is 200 lira. For 200 lira, you only get 10 ears of corn, think about the situation."