Every Friday is an exception: Can prices be lowered by rioting?

It all started with a post on Facebook, and ended with a drastic drop in traffic trade u Croatia on Friday (January 24).

On that day, 44 percent fewer fiscal invoices were issued in stores in this country than a week earlier, while the total amount of invoices was 53 percent less compared to the previous Friday, the Croatian tax administration announced.

Consumers, dissatisfied with high prices, they decided to avoid going shopping for a day.

"The shops were quite empty on Friday, in some parts there were more sellers than buyers." They introduced some discounts to attract people, but people united in the boycott," Branimir Bradarić, a journalist from Vukovar, told Vreme.

He says that even on Friday he did not go shopping on principle, but left everything for Saturday.

"On Saturday it was like there was no tomorrow." You had nowhere to park, it seems to me that there was more chaos than usual on Saturdays", says Bradarić.

A new store boycott has been announced for Friday, January 31, and calls to boycott stores in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are circulating on social networks.

Significant drop in turnover

A total of 28,6 million euros were spent in Croatian stores on the day of the boycott, while seven days earlier, on Friday January 17, 60 million were spent.

During the day of the boycott, 2,08 million fiscal invoices were issued, significantly less than on Friday, January 17, when that number was 3,7 million.

The total amount of the bill was 53 percent lower, the Croatian tax administration announced.

Apart from statistics, the success of the boycott is also evidenced by posts on social networks where stores are without customers.

State intervention

The results published by the competent institutions show that the boycott was successful, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković also responded.

He said that the boycott of stores is an important and articulated message to the citizens, which will be taken into account when defining the administrative price limit measures for certain products. He announced that such measures will be adopted next week, reports HRT.

"It is a message for citizens to monitor and compare prices and consider some unacceptable compared to similar or the same products abroad," Plenković said.

State intervention is not the solution to the problem, according to Damir Novotni, professor of economics at Algebra Bernaj University in Zagreb.

"The government in Croatia reacted nervously, because it is not known who the blade of the boycott was directed against." "Some government ministers supported the boycott as if it did not apply to them, and they are the biggest winners of inflation", says Novotni.

More than government measures, he advocates market mechanisms.

The government of that country, he explains, failed to lower the VAT on food products, which would have lowered their prices.

In Croatia, there is a single VAT rate of 25 percent on all products.

Is a boycott the solution?

The interlocutor of "Vremen" says that people did not go to the shops on Friday, but left en masse already the next day or even went shopping in neighboring countries on Friday.

"People need products, they don't give up buying, but now consumers have mobilized to say something collectively," says Novotni.

However, he does not expect that the store boycott will result in price reductions.

"Retail chains will close their stores if there is no consumption, but they are waiting for tourists." If all the citizens of Croatia joined together and boycotted retail chains for a month, they would compensate for consumption and profitability during the summer", explains the professor of economics from Zagreb.

A new boycott has been announced for January 31, and even Branimir Bradarić does not expect that anything will be achieved.

"People have gone crazy and have no other option but to try to get together." Nevertheless, nothing can be achieved in that one day, but it is obvious that people have decided to take matters into their own hands", added Bradarić.

Why are the prices high?

There are three key factors for the increase in the prices of goods and services recorded in Croatia, explains Novotni.

As the first reason, he cites the opening of the market after the covid-19 pandemic, when after the drop in prices, there was a sudden increase in them due to increased demand.

"Consumers started shopping, they were hungry for products, but there were not enough of them and prices started to rise," he explains.

Another external impulse, he adds, is the events in Eastern Europe, the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"The war caused expectations that there would be no oil and gas on the market, so there was a sudden increase in the prices of those energy products, which affected all other prices as well."

The third impulse, he adds, is the rise in labor costs due to the demand for labor in the European Union.

An important factor for high food prices in Croatia is also a structural problem - the food deficit.

Because of this, food is imported, and this is the main source of price growth in today's circumstances, explains the interlocutor of "Vremena".

Friday is an exception in other countries of the region

The wave of boycotts spread from Croatia to its neighbors.

Thus, consumer organizations and even some politicians are calling for a shopping boycott on Friday, January 31.

The consumer association Effectiva called for a boycott of large retail chains in Serbia.

"After analyzing your proposals and suggestions, we have decided to call on consumers to boycott large retail chains. Food prices are among the highest in Europe. Consumers in Croatia reduced their income by boycotting on Friday", stated Effectiva on the X network.

The Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, supported the idea of ​​a trade boycott.

On the X platform, Spajić shared a survey of "Išćućah" users who asked if it should be done on the example of Croatia.

After that, Alternative Montenegro called on citizens to boycott supermarkets and stores in Montenegro on Friday, January 31.

They believe that the prices are enormously high and that the leading trade chains, by mutual agreement on the formation of prices, had a decisive influence on the fact that citizens did not feel the increase in salaries and pensions.

"Can we put politics aside for that one day, not to divide, to all be as one, to let them know that we decide?!", reads the call of Alternative.

After the action in Croatia, social networks in Bosnia and Herzegovina are spreading calls to boycott shops, gas stations, cafes and restaurants on Friday, January 31, as an expression of dissatisfaction with high prices and low living standards.

The initiators of the action call on citizens not to buy anything that day and to provide groceries in advance, cook at home and avoid consumption in restaurants.