Welcome to the Inflation Station – On Chilli’s And Other Economic Swindles
I recently read a post by a fellow blogger buddy, Fai9alR, in which he discusses and exposes Chilli’s for the gross inflation of the items on their new menu. He made a point of comparing the prices between Chilli’s old menu from a few years back (can’t be more than 3 years cause I remember seeing this menu in my sophomore year in university) and the current one. And, as it turns out, on an average order, Chill’s prices today have jumped by around half the amount they were on the old menu.
Half! As in 50 EXTRA percent of your wallet. That’s so inflated it could rival a huge Disney Land parade float.
And, you know what the worst part is? This is not just about Chilli’s. This is going on everywhere in Kuwait and on every consumer level. So much so that Kuwait has now proudly risen to nearly 4% average inflation rate, and it only stands to get higher. And, really, the problem seems to have become so complicated that its becoming harder and harder to point the finger at anyone.
I mean, the government seems to think that it can combat inflation by raising the pay of Kuwaiti nationals ever so frequently, but, apparently, that seems to be having an opposite effect on the inflation issue.
And, I can figure at least two reasons why that might be happening:
- Companies are being greedy and deciding that they’d like to cash-in on the Kuwaiti increases so they raise their prices so that they end up raking in even more loot. This is, of course, a violation of consumer rights and needs to be investigated with every company that does raise their prices.
- The government doesn’t seem to realize that more than half of Kuwait’s consumerist population is not Kuwaiti. That means that they are still subject to the crazy expenses that come with living in Kuwait and that their employers (who do sell consumer goods/services/property) need to raise their pay in order for them to, you know, live and stuff. But these companies can only stay afloat as well as raise their largely non-Kuwaiti employee salaries by–that’s right–increasing the price of their goods/services/property.
My opinion? The government needs to completely re-strategize. Clearly, this pay increase deal isn’t doing jack for inflation. In fact, it’s making matters worse for everyone–Kuwaiti and expat alike. On one hand its making companies greedy and charge crazy prices, and on the other its actually forcing some companies to raise their prices in order to both make sure their predominantly non-Kuwaiti employees can manage and to stay afloat at the same time.
The government needs to come up with a more proactive plan that deals with the issue itself, not just try to hush the Kuwaiti community by giving them more money that’s only going to end up flying just as fast due to all the immediate inflation.
Because the bottom line is that paying more than half of the amount I used to pay at Chilli’s is not acceptable. Nor is paying double the price of an item I’m having shipped here through Shop ‘N’ Ship (Aramex).
Or, really, paying anything more than what is fair and managable to every single consumer in Kuwait.
All my love! (Above cartoon by Nikah Kosar)
