Italians stage shopping boycott
Consumer groups staged a three-hour shopping boycott and urged Italians to turn their lights out for five minutes today to protest price rises in products and services.
Public advocacy groups and labour unions said 78% of Italian consumers participated in the 10:30am to 1:30pm strike, although it was not clear how they arrived at the figure.
The groups said they had monitored supermarket entries and conducted phone surveys but gave no further details. The groups said one out of three people nationwide switched off at least one electrical appliance for five minutes in what was dubbed as “a voluntary black out”.
Consumers in downtown Rome seemed to be unaware of the strike and businesses said they registered no impact.
“I had not heard of the strike,” said Simona Boscolo, a 34-year-old woman who had just shopped at a supermarket. ”I don’t think it would be of any help though. It doesn’t tackle the problem of rising prices.”
Confesercenti, an association of small business owners, said that most businesses nationwide weren’t affected by the protest. According to their own surveys, the association said the majority of consumers were ”indifferent” to the strike and that the initiative was “confused and contradictory”.
Shopping strikes have been staged in the past to protest rising prices and what consumer groups say is lack of government action to contain inflation.
Many economists say that a low degree of competition in several market sectors, such as energy, might weigh on consumer prices.
