The high cost of living, and the lower salaries, is thought to be responsible, at least partially if not mostly, for the "brain drain", and also for the frustration many people have in making ends meet and "finishing the month" respectably.
The government has made a lot of promises to fight the ever-rising cost of living, and it has taken moves and made improvements in some areas, such as mobile phone expenses.
While the government can be instrumental in fixing the situation by breaking monopolies, effecting competition, lowering tariffs on imports, and the like, there is a lot private industry can do. Businesses are in business in order to make money, not to be nice to the public and help them save money. If supply and demand, in some sort of cooperation with taxes and customs, means a business can charge x for their product or service, they will even though we might complain about how expensive it is. If we buy it, even while complaining, at that price, they will continue selling it at that price. And if we continue buying when they raise the price, they will continue raising the price. They will only lower the price when they see the consumers are no longer buying the product at the higher price. So, it is a lot to ask a business to be nice to Israeli society and lower the prices. They are in business to make more money, not less. However, there are different business models, and businesses can be profitable and excel in such a market while offering lower prices.
Cofix made a revolution in the coffee industry. They introduced coffee shops in which they sold coffee for 5nis per cup, along with sandwiches and danishes, for 5nis, instead of the 15 or 18nis rates other coffee shops were selling at. Not only did they provide coffee at cheaper prices, but the other coffee shops and chains felt pressure to lower their prices. They did not go as low as 5nis for their coffee or food, but they did lower their prices somewhat.
According to Ynet, Cofix is making another move to fight the high cost of living. Cofix says they can still make a profit by selling at much cheaper prices. The theory is that the current stores are really ripping us off. Similar to how they charged hundreds or thousands of shekels per month for cellphone usage, and then suddenly they are charging rates of like 50nis per month and still making good profit.
Building on the success and model of the coffee shops, Cofix will now be opening a chain of 20 supermarkets in which they will sell products at 5nis each. The supermarkets, neighborhood stores, will soon start opening in cities and neighborhoods around Israel, and will start off selling 600 products at 5nis each. The products carried will be household cleaning supplies, dairy products and basic food items. Obviously they will be making more money by volume of sales.
The chairman of Cofix explained the concept being to take hundreds of products and unify their prices at 5nis by lowering the prices of existing brands, new parallel imports, private labeling products and repackaging of products for matching price with amounts.
Cofix has the support of Minister Naftali Bennet who has promised to assist by easing any bureaucratic problems.
I hope they open a Cofix or two in Bet Shemesh. I'd move some of my shopping to such a supermarket, and hopefully save a significant amount of money, and it would have a chain affect on all the other supermarkets as well.
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