And as you saw, true to tradition Christmas brings its own money, and the
shoppers are cutting about looking for deals; for most, the best store is where
they find the best prices. But, there’s another way to rate those stores;
the bureau of standards recently did it – rating popular supermarkets
on a scale of one to five stars – with five stars signifying the best-kept
standards. Five stars means the store is, in the judgement of the bureau, protecting
consumers’ health, safety and economic interest. It’s a good way
to protect consumers and to give businesses an incentive to upgrade their standards.
Today 7News spoke with a manager of one of the top stores on list and the Bureau
of Standards Consumer Protection Liaison Officer Kenisha Stuart. Stuart told
us that during October and November one hundred and sixty nine stores were assessed
and of that number thirty one made it on the list.
Kenisha Stuart, Consumer Protection Liaison Officer
“We have seven categories and the stores were graded out of a hundred
and so five stars stores who would have scored between the 90 to 100 percentile
and they would have scored well in the receipt section, if they were selling
expired goods, also the net content of the basic commodities; rice, flour sugar,
if those contents were correct. Also if they have a price list with the price
controlled good displaying their GST registration, their trade license registration
and also the general upkeep of the store; was it sanitary, was the garbage properly
disposed, were the shelves cleaned, were there prices displayed on the items
on the shelves. So five star stores scored within the 90s. it doesn’t
necessarily mean that they all got 100. So there are still for improvement by
the five star stores.”
Public’s Supermarket,
“Well so far we feel proud of our team. We try our best throughout
the year to do the best service for the customer and giving the best possible
prices and so when it comes to the end of the year we feel we get some sort
of appreciation from the customers and we feel good, we feel proud of ourselves.
What we do, our customers love and appreciate it.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“And I notice Public’s has really been working hard in 2009 expanding
its outlets.”
Public’s Supermarket,
“We have been working, so far we’ve opened two new outlets;
one on Boulevard and one on the Northern Highway and we are working on more
outlets, maybe out district and trying to give the best possible price for the
country.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
“What prompted the bureau to conduct this survey?”
Kenisha Stuart,
“Well we have a hotline and we received quite a few complaints and
the complaints were mainly around price controlled goods that being sold at
the proper prices and also the quality of goods being offered for sale. There
were many stores selling expired goods and based also on our market surveillance
these were the same things we saw coming up and also on receipts, when consumers
call to make a complaint they don’t normally have the receipt or if they
have a receipt it does not have on the relevant information to make a complaint
so this motivated us to do the survey. We are seen as an enforcer but we’re
trying to bridge the gap between serving the community and service consumers.
And so hopefully with this survey we persuade businesses to act in the interest
of consumers.”
Sixteen stores in Corozal, Orange Walk and Belize City received five
stars, four got four stars in Belmopan, San Ignacio and Santa Elena and nine
received three stars in Dangriga, San Pedro Town, Benque and Stann Creek Rural.
The Belize Bureau of Standards will be conducting periodic checks in March 2010
so for those five star businesses. Those businesses that received three to four
stars are being advised to upgrade. Two more stores that had received five stars
but were erroneously left off the initial list were James Brodie on Albert Street
and M&J in Orange Walk Town.
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