ORPHANIDES hypermarkets will round down their prices on January 1 when the island adopts the euro.
The public company’s commitment to round down its prices on all 65,000 products was made in March and yesterday the hypermarket chain demonstrated exactly how it planned to make good on its promise.
“The conversion of Cypriot pounds to euro will be done by dividing the amount in Cypriot pounds with the conversion rate (0.585274) using all six decimal digits,” Buying Director Stelios Nicolaou said.
He said the amount in euros would then be rounded to two decimal points. If the third decimal digit was higher than five it would be rounded up and if it was lower than four it would be rounded down. The end result would then be rounded down, he said.
Nicolaou was speaking to reporters at a news conference at the chain’s Nicosia hypermarket.
“For example, if a product is sold today for £1 its new euro price will be 1.70 and not 1.71,” he said.
Going by the conversion rate, £1 is the equivalent to €1.7086. Since the third decimal digit is ‘8’ Orphanides said it would round the second digit up making it €1.71.
Nevertheless, keeping in line with the company’s decision to round down its prices, Nicolaou said it would retain the price at €1.70 rather than €1.71.
Other examples the buying director gave were for a 375g box of Cornflakes, which would be rounded down to €2.01 from its converted €2.02, a pack of eight 330ml soft drinks would be rounded down to €3.99 from €4, a 200g bag of Cyprus coffee would be rounded down to €1.60 from €1.61 and 12 fresh eggs would be rounded down to €1.87 from €1.88.
Nicolaou said a number of products would end up cheaper than they were now.
“What consumers understand is a drop in price, which is something we are going to do,” he said.
He said the price reductions would take effect on January 1 and apply to all 65,000 products sold at the hypermarket chain’s shops. Labels will clearly display the new price in euros and the old price in Cyprus pounds. This will also allow consumers to compare the price pre-euro adoption and after.
For example a dozen eggs now costs £1.10 (€1.88) but in January will cost £1.09 (€1.87).
“When you’re talking about products that cost about one or two euros the price reductions are a few cents. But on large, more expensive good the reductions will be several euros, not just cents,” he said.
For example a garden furniture set was going to be rounded down from €311 to €300, Nicolaou said.
“That’s an €11 reduction and there will be other reductions similar to that,” he said. “In most cases it will be cents but there are some areas that it’ll be by several euros.”
Meanwhile, the hypermarket also came out trumps in this week’s Competition and Consumer Protection Services watchdog report.
According to the December 17 report, Orphanides had the cheapest prices for the majority of 33 basic consumer goods inspected. The hypermarket was cheapest in all four major districts including Nicosia, Limassol, Paphos and Larnaca.
The weekly report, known as a Price Observation report, monitors the price of goods at hypermarkets, bakeries and butchers.
In Nicosia, the cheapest goods this week were available from Orphanides, followed by Carrefour and Metro in joint second place, Alphamega in third, Athienitis in fourth, and Debenhams fifth.
In Limassol Orphanides had the most competitive prices, followed by Carrefour, Alphaga and Karseras in joint second, E&S in third place, and Debenhams and Papas in fourth.
In Larnaca Orphanides and Tremetousiotis tied in first place, Carrefour in second, Metro and Sarris in joint third, Debenhams in fourth and Stelios in fifth.
In Paphos Ophanides came up trumps once again, followed by Carrefour and Chris Cash and Carry in joint second, E&S in third place, Papantoniou in fourth place and Debenhams in fifth place.
The Commerce Ministry service has come under heavy fire from hypermarkets in the past over its failure to include greengrocers and kiosks in its sample as they set hire prices than hypermarkets. But the service has said it was set up to create awareness among large businesses and not to harm small businesses.
It also said the fact that hypermarkets were reducing their prices and that ones known for being more expensive than others and now listed as cheaper showed that the market was working competitively.
“There are reductions in prices of certain goods and special offers at lower prices from certain hypermarkets,” the report said.
