Regulation of the Government of Serbia limit margins to up to 20 percent it entered into force on September 1. On the same day, offers with current discounts disappeared from the My Maxi application and from the shelves of these stores.
Currently, Maxi is at a reduced price he can only buy beer and a few non-food items, such as school supplies and kitchenware. There is no food leaflet for this week on the website of this supermarket either, instead there are only "beer" and "school" leaflets.
We sent an inquiry to the representatives of this company regarding the noticeable lack of stocks in their shops, but we did not receive an answer until the conclusion of this text.
What is the situation with other supermarket chains in Serbia?
Univerexport: Reduction in 23 facilities
Other larger supermarkets, such as Idea, Lidl and Dis, currently have available promotions and current catalogs with discounts. Only Univerexport limited its discounts to only 23 selected facilities in the whole of Serbia.
Admittedly, Lidl published the catalog with food products a few days late.
We tried to compare the prices of products on sale until September 1 and in current catalogs and concluded - there are no rules. Some products are cheaper, while others have become more expensive, and the price of others has not changed at all.
It is difficult to make an accurate estimate because the brands of products on sale are mostly different. In DIS, we found ice cream from the same manufacturer, which on sale now costs 20 dinars less than it cost in the previous catalog - admittedly, it is smaller by 150 milliliters. Cured ham, cheese, coffee, sweet and savory confectionery have also been discounted, but there is no noticeable difference compared to previous discounts.
Idea, which has a joint catalog with Roda and Mercator stores, does not offer a weekly promotion for now, but a catalog with a significantly smaller number of products is available. As for the prices, there is no difference either - they usually go up or down by 10 dinars.
We compared the Lidl catalog now and less than a month ago. Veal for stew cost 1625 dinars per kilogram then, and now it has jumped to 1850. The price of chicken schnitzel is the same, but chicken wings have become cheaper by 90 dinars.
Photo: Tanjug/Ana PaunkovićMinister Siniša Mali was shopping on September 1
Where are the biggest differences?
The "Vremena" reporter visited the stores on September 1 and concluded that in some places you can really buy much cheaper products.
In one trade chain, she bought a liter of milk, oil, yogurt, sliced bread and ten eggs for 600 dinars. It should be noted that she chose the cheapest products and branded products of that retail chain.
According to a worker in this chain, the most discounted are the products of their brand, but others are also discounted.
He singles out chicken hot dogs, whose kilogram, from the previous 380, now costs 220 dinars. Kulen has also become cheaper by about 300 dinars per kilogram, cheeses are cheaper by 300 to 700 dinars per kilogram, and the prices of white cheese and cream have also been reduced.
In another market, the sellers themselves are confused, because they still don't have new prices, and they say that some products have been reduced by one dinar.
Photo: TimeHot dogs on sale
Why are the prices more reduced somewhere?
The key to the different prices could lie in previously realized profits.
From September 1 and in the next six months, the prices of about 25 types of products should be lower, since the Government of Serbia, by adopting the Regulation on special conditions for conducting trade for certain types of goods limited margins to up to 20 percent.
The new rules apply to all stores that in 2024 generated revenues of more than 4,5 billion dinars or about 38 million euros, which means that all retail chains will have to apply them, and some of them had more than a billion euros in their cash registers last year, Nova portal reported.
The regulation on special conditions for conducting trade for a certain type of goods stipulates that the limit of margins to a maximum of 20 percent applies to about 25 types of products that should have lower prices in stores.
The reduction includes milk, dairy and mixed products, eggs, soft drinks, coffee, tea, fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable processing, bread and pastries, legumes, frozen products, fresh and processed meat, fresh and processed fish, salty confectionery, sweet confectionery and cereals, sugar, honey, flour, pasta, oils and fats, vinegar, rice, salt and spices, household chemicals, paper and kitchen haberdashery, personal hygiene and cosmetics, baby food and diapers.
