Maximum Retail Price (MRP) Is it really Negotiable??

Recently witnessing the sale of Deepawali Crackers in the market and surprisingly the MRP of all the items were hiked to not less than 70%-80% and in some case upto 90% of the actual cost of the product by manufacturers. You might be in your high spirits when the retailer has offered you a discount of 20%-30% on the MRP. Beware consumers he is still not in loss and he has snatched a big chunk of money from your pocket and you have paid much more than the actual cost of the product. Leave Crackers, you all have witnessed number of gift shops offerings huge discounts. If you take the other side of the coin, it implies that they are earning that much %age more and the actual cost of product is far less than offered.

You might be feeling very glad in watching some interesting advertisements repeatedly on your TV set and on the road side hoardings. Ever thought how much money would be these channels are charging from these brands and from where the money goes. It surely goes from our pockets. Do we actually require these advertisements especially for the medical products and do we actually watch an advertisement before buying a product? These advertisement don’t reach the poor and rich are already educated enough to buy the products of their choice. Stores are perfect place to watch out for the products you intend to buy. If the frequency of advertisements in reduced, the actual cost of the product will be far lower than currently offered.

Number of times you might have seen this slogan flashing on your television sets, a big advertisement on newspapers- JAGO GHARAK JAGO, which is requesting consumers to protect their rights by education through these means. The advertisement is heard saying that Maximum Retails Price is not the fixed price which the consumer has to pay and it can be negotiated with the retailer. The advertisement is even heard saying that consumer should be asking for a bill before leaving the outlet. How much does this help to an ordinary citizen of the country and how much he dares is a big question to debate and should be debated.

Though there are enough advertisements from the Government side to curb this menace but this is definitely not helping the consumers. MRP can be negotiated with small retailers to certain extent but incase of big giants they hardly care of offering the goods less than the MRP. The goods are sold not less than paisa below MRP. They always have Fixed Price tags pasted in their shops. Another issue is that the consumers are not aware of the cost of the product thereby facilitating him to negotiate and most of times shopkeeper is heard saying that we don’t have enough margin on this product and the consumer has no other option either to buy or not to buy that product.

No one can even try to negotiate in a big shopping mall or in a branded show room. On the contrary we pay to these business tycoons with reverence and even say a word of Thank You before we leave that place. Upper class people don’t want to bargain, Middle Class doesn’t dare to bargain and the lower class cannot dare to enter these places and finally the left out cannot even dream of these places. We people don’t have the audacity to even bargain for a single rupee at these places.

Some faction of our society has the courage to bargain in small business outlets / stores and there even the lower class is not respected. Those who are confident enough win the game and others are thrown out and the owner associates with them very rudely.

Some reputed brands are offerings huge discounts upto 80% off. It means that they are earning 80% more if no discounts are offered. Essential commodities, Medicines are sold on MRP have enormous margins and even after this hefty amount of profit the figures are fabricated and thereafter taxes are paid. The only place where no one bargains is the chemist shop. What ever he demands we have to pay and no credit to any one and the volume of margins are very heavy in this sector primarily because of business race and luring the sellers with various schemes. Enormous commissions are offered to sellers on meeting specific targets. The entire money is going in the hands of capitalistic people. No manufacturer has ever though of rationalizing the MRP on their products. By offerings heavy discounts on MRP the consumer is getting attracted.

If a product actually costing the manufacturer Rs 20 is offered on MRP of Rs 100 and thereafter offering discount of 50% implies that the entire chain of manufacturer to retailer is grabbing Rs 50 extra from the consumer. The cascading effect is that at some places the discount may be offered and at some places it may not be due to lack of exposure to consumers. It would have been rational if the product had been offered on MRP of Rs 50 only and making the product affordable for every one in every part of the country.

There needs to some effective means by which the Government should be seriously concerned about controlling the MRP of the products which will definitely boost the Indian economy and reduce poverty in the country. If a consumer is spending less on something he will have access to another thing and this help in increasing his status in the society.

There needs to some generic methods for the manufacturers to derive the MRP of a product so that the consumers are less burdened. In most of the cases, the MRP of the product is so much hiked that the consumer has to bear the final toll. You cannot have one scale for every thing. We should have genuine and fixed prices controlled by the some independent body or the government on every item / commodity in the country so that it is affordable to every citizen and at the same time it needs to be done honestly.

If today Government is hiking prices of some commodity, it is known to the dealers in advance and they start accumulating the products which are sold at higher prices at a later stage to the society and an immense amount is earned. If today the Government announces the increase in petrol prices, imagine the amount of money the petrol pump owners make. Essential commodities which are a necessity and are required by every citizen should be exempted from these mal practices by the every one from manufacturer to retailer and should not be dumped unnecessarily. These should be given a free access. This menace has become surely a one way money flow. Rich have started becoming richer and poor and becoming poorer now-a-days.

The Government needs to think on the other side of the table to curb this menace from the country if the business heads are not interested who should have taken lead. Electronics and Information Technology has definitely brought revolution in the country due to its low cost, affordability and accessibility and has raison the status of the people across the board. This thing is expected in all the sectors as a major initiate from the leading business houses and government and specially in medical industry. Some sectors really need to be spared for the betterment of society at large.