Sales of combos from the Institute for Price Stabilization (Inespre) continue in commercial establishments that signed agreements with said State entity, but in a smaller proportion than when that program began about 10 weeks ago, according to Mario Lama, president of the National Organization of Commercial Companies.
“The combos have continued to sell normally, although with less intensity than at the beginning of the program of the unexpected. The demand has a downward trend”, Lama notified yesterday.
Given the international scenario that has been impacting raw materials and causing inflation globally, the unexpected On March 17 of this year, the food sales program began on Thursdays, in the main chains of supermarketstitled: “Buy at the Inespre price in the supermarket”.
As of May 12, 2022, more than 505,000 combos had been purchased, impacting more than 2.3 million people, Inespre estimated. Each combo costs 1,000 pesos.
According to data provided by Inespre, the estimated investment in combos, which are also sold for more than 100 supermarkets affiliated with the Dominican Federation of Merchants (FDC), around 30 million pesos.
“We continue to dispatch the combos every Thursday. We already have clients waiting on Thursdays for the offers we present to them,” said Iván García, president of the FDC.
He added that people who buy the combos have savings of up to 30%.
In a tour carried out yesterday morning by Free Journal for supermarkets of the National District, the presence of clients in the areas enabled to offer rice, beans, chicken, sardines, spaghetti, oil, a can of pigeon peas, salamis or ham and eggs, through the combos, was practically nil.
“I buy the combos as soon as they are offered. The products are good, and in my house, there are three of us, there are products like these that last up to another week, because one doesn’t just eat this; We also buy bananas, cassava, potatoes, among other foods,” said Yolanda Feliz, a client of one of the establishments visited.
In addition, he added that on several occasions they have gone to the supermarkets and they buy the products offered through Inespre and commercial establishments because they are still in the spaces identified with a label from the state entity.
“Yes, those products remain there, we do not remove it,” said one of the supervisors approached by Free Journal.
App “Fair prices”
In September 2021, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes (MICM) presented the “Fair Prices” application. Through this, consumers can compare the prices of the products of the family basket in establishments of Greater Santo Domingo.
“We continue to expand the range of price information in establishments constantly,” said yesterday the deputy minister of internal trade of the MICM, Ramón Pérez Fermín. “It originally started in the great Santo Domingo; We have already expanded it to the East and to the Cibao, and to a part of the South”.
