How much would you be willing to spend for a bottle of cool, refreshing mineral water? A local consumer group thinks you should cap that at RM1 a bottle, or you’re just setting yourself up as a sucker.
The Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) has called for a nationwide ban on all brands of 500ml bottled mineral water that retail for more than RM1, adding that anything more than that price would make commercial water more expensive than petrol.
PIM chief activist Nadzim Johan told Bernama that his organisation proposes te boycott to be conducted for three months, beginning yesterday.
“We chose to boycott mineral water because it is being sold at an unreasonable price, especially at food outlets. In some places, it is being priced at RM3.50 per bottle compared to the normal price of RM1.
“The price of that bottled water is higher than the new price of a litre of petrol.
“The cost for that 500ml of bottled mineral water is just about 50 sen and after taking into account the 70 per cent profit, it should be sold at a price not more than RM1,” he told a press conference organised by the Consumer Research Boycott Centre Committee yesterday.
Nadzim added that the unchangingly high price of goods despite the recent drop in fuel prices is not only caused by traders reluctant to lose a growing profit margin, but also due to the ignnorance of consumers regarding the relationship between commodity prices.
“Consumers are too ignorant to notice that the mineral water is being sold at an unreasonable price. They only noticed the hike in the price of petrol.
“This attitude must change and consumers must pay attention and make comparison of the prices of goods in the market,” he said.
To illustrate, we’ve pulled up a video from The Atlantic explaining why expensive mineral water is so … well, expensive:
