Thursday, November 10, 2011

KR1M v Carrefour: A Comparison

Below is a sample basket comparison between products from Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) and Carrefour. So who's "cheaper"? Can you see the supposed 30% to 50% savings from RM40 million subsidized KR1M?  You be the judge:

Click image for a larger view.

Read also write up on the above here.

18 comments:

Rakyat said...

The question is-did these Kedai 1Malaysia benefit all the people or not? It does not make sense if I got to drive several km(which means extra petrol expenses and parking)just to enjoy that miserable discount.
This project is just another publicity act by Najib as I see it.

avigen said...

Total misleading and encouraging others to follow their misleading way of advertising!

TOKZ said...

Hi TONY,

As much as I respect you for all the efforts you had been trying to do to defame 'Kedai 1Malaysis' but I'm afraid you are seeing things from a very NARROW perspective.

I believe the OBJECTIVE of 'Kedai 1Malaysia' is NEVER aimed to be the CHEAPEST hyper mart/sundry shop in Malaysia. The target of 'Kedai 1Malaysia' is to enable consumers to get a FAIR DEAL in purchasing their daily necessities. Prior to the launch of 'Kedai 1Malaysia', many 'unscrupulous' hyper marts/sundry shops had been selling their products on a very HIGH margin. This was a RIPPED-OFF for 'the rakyat' as they were no other avenues for them to procure their necessities should they be UNHAPPY with the prices in these hyper marts. Then, next came the BRILLIANT idea of 'Kedai 1Malaysia' of which pledged to sell their products at MEGA LOW PRICES for the simple sake of 'the rakyat' economic welfare.

The launch of 'Kedai 1Malaysia' sent waves of ANXIETY & SUSPENSE to many of these 'unscrupulous' hyper marts including small time 'kedai runcit'. This news instantly made these 'unscrupulous' hyper marts worry as the word 'TUTUP KEDAI' could be forthcoming. Huge hyper marts with huge financial back-up such as CARREFOUR, TESCO & GIANT quickly re-strategize their pricing as to compete with the ANGEL-LIKE 'Kedai 1Malaysia'. These hyper marts had now gone to the extent of selling selected products "WAY BELOW" cost price but somehow would cheekily increase the price of other selected products simply because these hyper marts knew it's rare to have customers walking into their premises just to buy 1 MISERABLE item that is on DISCOUNT. Chances is that consumers will buy several more items along the way & some of these extra items they put into their basket/trolley could be items which prices had been increased to make-up for the 'BELOW COST' item advertised. Well TONY, had you ever been into a hyper mart just to buy 1 item that is advertised to be on sale??? NO, right??? Sounds silly, right??? Even your WIFE will scold you SILLY for doing so.

My dear TONY...with your kind of academic background you claimed to have, I thought you're much SMARTER than this. Sadly, you simply DON'T seem to have the basic grasp of ECONOMICS to understand complex subjects. In the BUSINESS WORLD, it's all about strategy & I believe 'Kedai 1Malaysia' had NEVER pledged to be the cheapest after all, right???

The existence of 'Kedai 1Malaysia' simply offer 2 GREAT BENEFITS:

1) To offer prices that are as cheap & affordable as possible to 'the rakyat' should those 'unscrupulous' hyper marts raise their prices.

2) To DISABLE the motives of hyper marts RIPPING US off with whatever prices they wish to sell assuming if 'the rakyat' don't buy from them, they have no where else to buy.

Thus I'll appreciate if dear TONY could at least use something GOD had given him called BRAINS before harping on anything just to 'TANGKAP GLAMOUR'. It's better NOT to appear in the media rather than to appear in the media but end-up TALKING PURE RUBBISH without the basic fundamentals of BUSINESS & ECONOMICS.

Buck up, TONY!!!

KY said...

I finally understand why you made it as an outstanding opposition politician. Man...you can take a small part of something & blow it out of proportion when you knew nothing in this world is perfect & has its' flaw. You surely know how to capitalize of small flaws & make it big. This is surely an essential fundamental for any politician standing on the opposition side to excel but sadly not many of your comrades possesses this kind of talent other than those seasoned ones such as Kit Siang, Karpal & Guan Eng.

However, I see it difficult for you to excel should you be on the ruling side as it will then be a different ball game. You then would be the one who would have to implement rather than to dig-up flaws left by your rivals.

I ain't no strong supporter of BN & I too have difficulties believing Pakatan Rakyat can do a good job. To me, politicians regardless of sides only know how to talk, talk, talk, talk but when it comes to work...they will hide their work with all sorts of talking until everyone gets confused.

oligopoli said...

the way i see it, some thing that been compared is not comparable. go through the list, and you will know what i mean. we can also conclude that some thing is cheaper at KR1M, and some others are cheaper at other hyper. so back to basic - be a good consumers, go where the cheapest price we could get. i know its hard to compare item by item, but that the most we can do. publicity or not, as long it benefits people, who cares.

Anonymous said...

zzzzz...can you please comment on bigger issues?

since when policians became price checkers?

IamjustaMalaysian said...

Minister Ismail Sabri is such a loser, only dare to speak to RTM about this issue. From day one itself, my mum has already given two thumbs down for this shop.

On another note, why spent money on www.1pengguna.com when you can have alot of housewives to help the Ministry to monitor the prices. In return, you can give em shopping vouchers.

Anonymous said...

If you want to talk about economy, I think Tokz really has no idea what is Economics about. Let's talk about government's role. What is government's role to the economy? Government's role is to implement Fiscal Policy towards economy to generate growth.

By trying to produce consumer goods at a lower price in order to pressure major hyper markets to lower the price, then what is the role of the government now? Price checker? That is so wrong. What if the price of the hyper market drops? Then the one that the government mass produce will go to waste due to higher price and the money invested will be gone too. If this is your point, I would say that the money can be used to build infrastructure instead or other better things. Besides, there is another cheaper way for the government to control inflation or price, which is through monetary policy by Bank Negara.

So Mr. Tokz, please understand economics before trying to tell others about economics.

I really don't get it why the government wants to produce consumer goods and sell it.

Anonymous said...

Retailer/Supermarket Gross profit % (GP$/selling prices) range from 0% ( call lost leader in the trade - to attract customers) to 35+-% .Overall margin before expenses is about 10%(lousy player) to 20%(good operator) .The trick of trade is high volume low margin Not high volume high margin. Competition will not allow retailers to have high margin on fast moving item. Any additional $ will be from suppliers like Nestle or Unilever during said special promotion.

No retailers could have across the board 30% cheaper than the other retailers unless this shop is supported by unfair means like subsidy from supplier or government.

Question here is whether KR1M is subsidized by tax payers? If yes why should tax payer pay to business owners to make $$? Is this against law that ensure competition Such as Anti-competition Act ?

Government through GLC has invested or JV with big hypermarkets one time or another has already distorted the natural working of the market. These big players has gov land for outlets & buy in big volume to obtain better pricing thus forcing many small time kedai runcit close shop.

Gov should get out of the business esp retail and ensure proper law, enforcement and monitoring instead become player in the field. Imagine the referee also help to kick the ball !!!!

Anonymous said...

"oligopoli" above totally missed the point that KR1M is a sponsored shop while Carrefour is not.

Good job, Tony.

-BNTipu1Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir, need ur help in clarify this:

Is NFC getting free money of RM249 million without repayment need?
Pls refer http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/20/nation/9942796&sec=nation

NFC just need to submit an application to loan for RM249mil, without fully utilising the loan of RM250mil, they will no need to start repay back.
compare to the 10 over mil spend on condominium, i think the focus should be here! how come there will be loan agreement drawn out like this?

On its loan and grants, he says the government allocated a grant of RM13mil, of which 50% has been disbursed, and a loan of RM250mil with a 2% interest rate.

He denies that NFC had drawn down the RM250mil government loan, saying there was still RM69mil that hasn't been released. The money, he says, is allocated in a special loan account and NFC would need to justify to the Finance Ministry the amount it needs before the money is released accordingly.

The agreement for the loan specifies that repayment will only kick in once the RM250mil has been totally disbursed.

Repayment for the principal amount would be RM14.7mil each year for 17years, he adds.


If NFC is privately own company, it doesn't matter whether the condominium park under company name or individual name.

NFC bought the two condominiums for RM6.9mil cash per unit. In return, the developer gave them a cash rebate of 10% for two years, which comes up to RM57,000 a month per unit. They rent out each unit for RM18,000, which generates an income of RM75,000 a month per unit or RM900,000 a year for each unit.

“We are getting 12.9% returns on the investment. If we had put the money in the bank, we would get only 2.5% to 3.25% interest, which is less than the inflation rate,” he says, adding that the condominiums were purchased under the company's name. Once the contract farming started, he says, NFC would sell off the condominiums at a good price because they are in a prime location.

Anonymous said...

I think it is not fair to compare 1Malaysia brand with the hypermarket in house brand. Both are cheap product and BOTH are cheaper by 30-50% compare to PREMIUM brand like nestle, dutch lady etc. You are not comparing the product with the same basis.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing wrong for Tony to raise issues on KR1M since we all know that besides products quality, price and terms of trading between suppliers and Mydin as well as Mydin with the government are all cloudy and muddy. We can guess, most information reviewed so far are mean to be one sided interest group to influence the public. We need to study the possible ulterior motives of all interest parties and have a clearly pictures of their intention.

What is important here not highlighted is the issue of Malaysian government promoting unfair trade practices.
Who would want to invest in a country having such practise.

Tony and gang need to be wiser not to irritate a drowning man who will grab any straw to survive. Why provide Liow or MCA a chance? Let the salted fish as it is ie under the sun.

Anonymous said...

Please help to look into your constituency's traffic problem too. Do not forget your constituency's folks who supported you during the last election. The morning rush hour traffic going out to LDP from SS25 (Taman Mayang) is outrageous. People (or should I call them, barbarians???) are using a two-way road as a one-way lane into LDP, without caring for others' feelings.... Thanks.

I can see that you will be having a dialogue with the citizens there soon. Hopefully, we can see some solutions soon.

Anonymous said...

adjusted price? clever la u.. hahaha

Anonymous said...

YB,
honestly speaking, I am not able to see the reason why you are so persistent in KR1M issues.

The possible consequence of your success pursuit will be, you proved that KR1M is completely cheating and selling expensive goods and low quality products to consumers, and people stop patron the place. Fine. but this is the job of FOMCA and if you make 10 times the success this round, that will not make you a better and more successful politician isn't? Will Malaysia be a better country then?

Afterall, It is just a pro-government businessman that you are head on with.

>blue ocean<

Anonymous said...

All these talks about the hypermarkets in Malaysia cornering prices (and in the process ripping off consumers) must simply mean that they (Carrefour, Tesco, Giant, Jaya Jusco, Watson etc) form an oligopoly. Is this the case? In the USA, their hypermarkets (Walmart, Sears Roebuck, J.C.Penney etc) compete at cut-throat prices, resulting in reduced prices for the benefit of American consumers. Of course, additionally, American consumers have anti-trust legislation to protect them; due to anti-trust laws, American hypermarkets are forced to adopt fair trade practices. So, in the USA, anti-trust law and open competition help to foster a fair consumer market. Why is this not happening in Malaysia? Is the enforcement of fair trading practices in Malaysia not rigorous enough? Are there deficiencies in the supply chain that enable the hypermarkets to collude and form an oligopoly to the detriment of the average Malaysian consumer? Could someone enlighten me in this matter?

In any case, it is not the business of any government to run businesses. For this, you have business people and corporation that do just that. When a government also run businesses, it is as ridiculous as a referee on a football pitch who also plays the game, apart from being a referee for the competitors. But IT IS BUSINESS OF ANY GOVERNMENT to administer the world of business by promulgating and enforcing laws of fair trade practices as well as providing the infrastructure for business people and companies to do their business.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6.50.

Yes, that's what government is doing now.. Where do you think KR1M got his supplies? Sky Kingdom? If supplier can produce much lower price, CArrefour also will get from them, and now you have high volume products sold in 2 places. It will generate businesses and then can export to other countries... you think Carrefour will sell Malaysian Made products in France? it possible if we could produce it cheaper than others... we should invest more on prodcutivity and machines not cheap labor (from other countries anyway)... you should have read Tokz's comment more carefully..