This Is How Supermarkets In Thika Are Deceptively Minting Millions From You!

Amid hard economic times which Kenyans are going through, some supermarkets in Thika are worsening people’s misery by defrauding their customers through deceptive tactics.

Our investigative crew has established that consumers are unknowingly losing their hard earned money at the till of some top retail shops in this town.

The following are some of the tricks we discovered that these traders are using to steal from their customers.

Pricing.

Among some of the fraudulent practices these supermarkets are applying include displaying lower prices on the shelves and charging higher prices at the till. In such cases, unsuspecting customers are being deceived to believe on pricing quoted on the shelves or tagged on the items themselves only to make them pay a higher price at the counter.

(See Also:  Seven People Nabbed As ERC Cracks Down On Illegal LPG Refilling Unit In Makongeni.)

For instance, on the shelves, you will find the price of say Item A has been quotes something like KES 205 but when one goes to pay for it at the teller, they are charged something like KES 225. In case one questions why there is a variance between the shelf prices and the till prices, the teller will always give an excuse that the price had been adjusted upwards it only that they had forgotten to update the tags. The worst part is how foolish they make you feel after you raise your concern.

Corrupted quality.

Another ploy these rogue traders are using to hoodwink the customers in on quality of the goods they sell especially foodstuff. Sources from one of the supermarkets in question told us that they usually mix high quality foodstuff with lower quality ones and then sell them at the price of the quality ones. 

These is more so on the items that can be repacked and sold in smaller units.

“You see for instance, here we mix pishori rice with some quantity of ordinary rice and later repack it as pure pishori rice. In this way, the owner will be able to make a higher profit without anyone suspecting,” explained our source.

Underweight goods.

In this category, are goods that are usually bought in kilos like maize flour and sugar. If you happen 

to reweigh these items, you will realise that they are underweight by some grammes.

There are also those supermarkets that sell cooking gas. In a previous post in this forum about a crackdown on illegal gas fills, we noted that some of the supermarkets in Thika were stocking LPG gas sourced from illegal filling units. Other than endangering the lives of their customers, these supermarkets are stealing from them as most of these gas is usually underweight.

(Related Story: THIS IS HOW SOME SUPERMARKETS IN THIKA ARE ROBBING YOU.) 

Giving sweets instead of change.

There is also this habit of supermarkets issuing sweets and matchboxes instead of currency coins as change. Majority of these outlets are now forcing their client s to 'buy' stuff that they do not want or have not budgeted for.

Forcing one to buy them because these items are not usually gifts. One is actually forced to purchase them in the guise of getting their balance. The fact of the matter is that these traders do sell these sweets at a profit, thus robbing their clients in the pretext of scarcity of coins.

Warning!!

On behalf of Thika residents, Thika Town Today is hereby issuing a stern warning to all those 

supermarket that are still involved in these vices that it will name and shame them publicly if they continue to violate consumer protection laws. We are also advising the general public to be vigilant and ensure that they exercise caution when dealing with supermarkets which are blatantly bent on defrauding unsuspecting consumers.