Egg-stortion

I was doing the weekly mini-shop at Choithram's in Jebel Ali Village this morning. Somebody has to, and BetterArf always comes back with useless stuff like rutabaga and sprouts and aubergines and okra, so it's better if I do the shopping 'cos I actually buy stuff that

a) I know how to cook, and
b) I will eat.

I got to the egg fridge at Choithram's and reached for our usual six-pack of 'Golden Eggs' produced by the chickens of Al Jazira Poultry Farm LLC. They are splendid brown eggs, and they cost Dhs 3.25 for six. I was a bit surprised to find that the six-pack was somewhat shorter than usual. In fact it was a four-pack. And it was priced at Dhs 4.50.

Let's do some maths: six eggs at Dhs 3.25 is Dhs 0.542 per egg. Four eggs at Dhs 4.50 is Dhs 1.125 per egg. That's a little bit more than a 100% increase. A chat with the store manager elicits the usual shrug of the shoulders and 'head office controls the prices'.

I've lived in Dubai too long to be particularly outraged by this; I more or less expect to get screwed on everything I buy, more or less all the time. I will never buy Golden Eggs again, and they won't notice. Regrettably, plenty of other idiots will buy these cute little four-packs, and Al Jazira Poultry Farm's Marketing Manager will be promoted and hailed as the person who got the punters to pay twice as much for their eggs.

This comes in the week when the Gubment launched their Retail Price Watch