In light of the purported “panic shopping” and increased demands for certain common items, pensioners in Berbice are now battling to make ends meet as many businesses have increased the prices for their commodities.
Pensioners in Berbice on Friday
Since the first reported case of COVID-19 in Guyana on March 12, prices for essential items on the shelves have skyrocketed. At one supermarket, the price for flour has jumped from $415 a sack to $485.
This is just one example of what pensioners – many who live off of their monthly pension which stands at $20,500 monthly – are experiencing.
Monique (only name given), a pensioner from New Amsterdam, told Guyana Times that the prices at the supermarkets have increased from the initial price.
“All I know is that the prices raise. I don’t know if it is because of the coronavirus or the elections… We have to cope with it,” another pensioner told this publication.
Meanwhile, 87-year-old Olga Campbell, who lives alone, said she has noticed the price for milk and margarine have raised drastically.
“It is not the usual price that you pay. Now you have to pay something more. Soap and one and two other things gone up,” she added.
However, Monique stated that once she needs the products, she will have no alternative but to purchase same. Toilet tissue, she noted, has increased from $90 per roll to $120.
“The little that you get you have to spend on those things; you use them more. So, you have to buy it, you can’t eat the money. We have to buy the little things that we need and try to economise.”
President of the Berbice Pensioners Association, Burchell Archer noted that the hike in prices is worldwide.
“Because of the shortage of these items, all the entrepreneurs have been increasing their prices but for what reason, I don’t know. The COVID-19 has nothing to do with prices at supermarkets and the other areas,” he related.
