The cost of living in South Africa is getting out of hand. Yesterday, Eskom got the go ahead to increase electricity tariffs on the 1st of July by 13.3%, this after a 14.2% increase in December last year. Thank goodness the tariffs were not increased by 60% as Eskom had hoped for. Now that there has been a further increase in the price of electricity, you can be sure that the price of food is going to continue to go up.

I was in a supermarket yesterday picking up a few basic groceries, a walked past the meat section and I saw an elderly gentleman wearing a work suite and a helmet. It was clear that he was a builder working on one of the construction sites near the supermarket. He must have been buying a few basics for him to take home after work. As I walked past him I saw him holding a packet of chicken and you could see how he was scrutinising the packet closely and obviously paying a lot of attention to the price. He then put the packet back onto the shelf and looked at another packet. I walked past the meat section and went to another section of the supermarket. I then walked back past the meat section about 5 minutes later and this builder was still standing there continuing to look at the chicken.

A lot of thoughts ran through my mind at that time as I figured that this builder was taking time out to calculate which packet of chicken he could buy and if it was really worth it as the prices are almost becoming unaffordable now. In the past, this builder probably just walked into the supermarket and just picked up a packet of chicken without paying much attention to the price as he knew it was affordable; but not these days. More and more consumers are now taking the time to think about what they are buying and to see if it is really necessary and affordable.

Food prices are going up constantly. What may have cost your R5 last month will now be costing R7. What you may have bought last month, you may now decide it is not that important and you will not buy it this month. Consumer’s lifestyles are being forced to change due to the escalating food prices. And it does not look like it will be getting better anytime soon. Analysts predict inflation in South Africa to continue to go up until the end of 2009 where they hope that by then it will start to come down. So that means for the rest of this year and next year we are going to be in for ‘tough times’.

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