A damned thieving nation

I have been musing about what I should start squandering and who to victimise. I have come to realise that this is the best way to progress in the country and amass wealth. After all, integrity and honesty are out of current fashion, they are now fossils decades old. So why not go with the flow?

Sarcasm aside, the dishonourable act of stealing has become a menace. Literally, there is thievery thriving at every turn.

The latest mark in the trend is shops and supermarkets stealing from customers. I heard a few rumours and reports and even went as far as to double check my last receipt on the day from one of our busy supermarkets in Blantyre. What prompted the audit was the fact that on the day, a friend I was with lamented that the final bill did not seem to tally with the items purchased, and I thought so too.

I cross-checked my receipt and the sum seemed to be in tandem with the ‘prices’ of the items. But when I read the last copy of Malawi News two days ago, carrying the story of supermarkets stealing from people as front page news, I realised there was a real issue here. The gist of the story read:

Despite the hyper-inflation rate prevailing in the country which has eroded buying power, the operators are taking advantage of the gullibility of the Malawian consumers to make them pay more money for goods or charging them for goods they did not purchase in the first place. (Key phrase: the operators are taking advantage of the gullibility of the Malawian consumers.)

We are in a habit of ‘taking advantage’ of things we should not take advantage of and pulling the country deeper into the poverty pool. We continuously fail to grasp the concept that the country cannot develop if we fail to develop it and each other.

The story continued:

Now in the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC’s) investigation, the body has found that supermarkets are deceiving customers on pricing and has warned it will name and shame them if they continue to violate consumer protection laws.

The commission carried out an inspection of the top ten supermarkets in the cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre where it was discovered that the shops were craftily engaged in deceptive practices.

Among the fraudulent practices include displaying lower prices on the shelves and charging higher prices at the till, displaying lower overall amount on the till screen while the printed transaction receipt shows a higher amount, displaying edible food products bearing two expiry date labels or in other cases not displaying prices at all.

And here is the best part:

Responding to our earlier investigation, the CFTC said then that it had also received complaints on the matter and said the malpractice is common among till operators using the newly introduced Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD) machines. (Key phrase: the newly introduced Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFD) machines.)

Now, an electronic fiscal device was designed and introduced into the system for specific reasons. An EFD is a machine designed for use in business for efficient management controls in areas of sales analysis and stock control system and which conforms to the requirements specified by the laws. This is obviously not the situation on the ground, the law is being broken instead.

To compound this thievery, robbing customers means customer care is not a concern. And really, it isn’t; the same week I did an audit on a shop’s receipt, I had another experience in a big local supermarket that I found mediocre and exasperating.

Usually half the items do not have price tags. I picked a pack of fruits that had no price tag and went on to ask the till operator for the price. She had to check in a written notebook under ‘vegetables’ and when mentioned that this was a fruit, she responded that she mixes them up.

She did not find the fruit on her list and shouted over to another till operator inquiring the item code. She later entered the code in her system and the price was double its true worth, going by prices in other shops.

I paid for other items and left the shop musing about the level of inefficiency we have in the nation. Was this another thieving tactic? We have become a damned thieving nation and we should not blame anyone else for the level of mediocrity and poverty in the country.

I rest my case.