CAIRO - “People want the prices to fall,” says the owner of a clothes shop in the Imbaba district of Giza. “This is because their economic conditions have deteriorated since the recent revolution.” Indeed, cutting prices is one of the economic ambitions of the revolution. Meanwhile, this store owner and many others have been slashing their prices by as much as 40 per cent to attract more customers. The effect of this has been to increase sales, in the wake of a revolution that has caused a recession in Egypt. Hamed Sayyed, who also owns a clothes shop in the working class district of Imbaba, has taken a leaf out of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' book, by drawing up a list of military-style statements to describe his wares. 'Statement No. 1' lists the prices of T-shirts, 'Statement No. 2' the prices of jackets and so on. “The revolution has inspired me to cut my prices,“ Sayyed says, adding that he is delighted by what the revolution has achieved, even though he and other traders have made huge losses. His business has survived the crisis, but he regrets that many other shopkeepers have had to lay off their assistants. Mahrous Khedr, one such assistant, says that, before the revolution, they offered discounts of up to 20 per cent, but now they've increased the discounts to 40 per cent. Khedr, however, complains that, unbelievably, the prices of food have gone up yet again since the revolution. Mohamed Mo'men, who also owns a clothes shop, has come up with another motto: 'Yes to cutting prices, no to abusing people economically'. He too has slashed his prices, although some cloth merchants have ratcheted up the price of a square metre of cloth from LE20 to a staggering LE50 (about $8.50). Mo'men, who is trying to help his fellow citizens, wants other people to follow suit. He also wants to see more police on the streets, tackling the bullies and restoring discipline. He says that many stores have been robbed by bullies and criminals. “I'm also afraid that, if things get worse, there could be a revolution of the hungry in Egypt.” Let's hope Mo'men's words don't prove prophetic.
