"Supermarkets for the Poor"

The BBC has written about the opening of a new SOS Market branch in Belgrade. The first of these social supermarkets, which sell groceries at lower prices, opened around a month ago. They aim to make life that little bit easier for Serbia’s poorer residents who are feeling the pinch of the global economic crisis.

Not everyone can wander in and shop at the SOS Markets – you need to posses a card which is only issued to people who are unemployed or who have a monthly income of less than 200 euro. According to the report, the groceries on sale in these social supermarkerts are 50-70 percent cheaper than in regular stores and in order to stop the system from being abused, there is a limit on how many of the same item you can purchase per shopping trip.

I think these stores are a really good idea and should make some difference to those who don’t have a lot of income. However, it would be better for all of us if the price of supermarket goods were to go down in general. One thing I like about UK supermarkets is the choice – consumers have the option of buying low, medium and high-priced groceries and there is an enormous range of  ’supermarket-own’ brands, such as 6p (6 euro cents) cans of baked beans or 23p (25 euro cents) packets of spaghetti. They were lifesavers when I was a cash-strapped student and were not at all that bad really.

Check out the full BBC article and watch the video for some idea of the produce available and the prices.

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