You put Nakumatt on trial, here is their defence…
Nakumatt supermarket has defended itself against claims of price discrepancies on the shelves and tills saying it could be as a result of slow updating of the shelf price stickers.
The supermarket has, in the meantime, launched an internal investigation to ascertain the truth after a day-long barrage of criticism and complaints by disgruntled shoppers on social media.
Nakumatt managing director Atul Shah said preliminary investigations had shown that the said discrepancies are “isolated” and “inadvertent”.
It all started last Friday when radio personality Marcus Olang posted a receipt of maziwa mala that showed he had been billed a different price from the one on the shelf.
Kenyans on Twitter then latched onto the post and started sharing their experiences with the discrepancies, which on Monday snowballed into the hashtag #NakumattOnTrial on Twitter.
Some complained that whenever they alert the staff, they (staff) retort back with statements such as “unapigia kelele pesa kidogo (you’re complaining about a small amount of money)” and “hiyo ndiyo bei (that’s the correct price)”.
In a statement to newsrooms Monday, Nakumatt said immediate corrective measures have also been instituted to ensure and guarantee its system integrity particularly on the arising pricing concerns.
ONE-PRICE POLICY
“We continue to maintain a one-price policy, across all our Kenya branches. All price changes, are centrally managed from our Nairobi headquarters and any discrepancies on the shelf can only be attributed to slow sticker changes at the branch level. All price changes, are dictated by corresponding price change advisories, dictated by respective suppliers,” explained Shah.
“We are taking the necessary action to ensure that all stickers are updated as soon as any price changes are announced.”
He revealed that the giant retail chain will introduce digital price checker kiosks on all aisles, to assist its customers confirm product pricing by scanning the bar codes.
“The Management is sincerely concerned at the number of complaints shared on social media,” he said.
He asked all aggrieved shoppers to lodge their complaints via the email address action@nakumatt.net for investigations to commence.
“Please, indicate the respective branch where you may have shopped with a brief description of your complaint,” he said.
Mr Shah told dissatisfied shoppers to lodge their complaints with the duty manager at the branches.