SOME unscrupulous shopkeepers were busy devising ways to defraud many customers shopping for items during the recent Christmas season.

That was the view of at least a few with whom the Guyana Chronicle spoke on New Year’s Day.
The predominantly women shoppers expressed their dissatisfaction at a now common practice by grocers to, allegedly, use faulty scales and weights when selling during that period.
The women named the grocers in question, at locations on East Coast of Demerara and Parika, East Bank of Essequibo.
Ivy Thomas, who hails from East Bank of Demerara, said the weight of merchandise that she purchased at two groceries, the names of which she gave, was, seemingly right on the shopkeeper’s scale. However, when she weighed the items at home, most were short of between ounces and pounds.
She claimed that efforts to resolve the issue with the grocers, usually, works out to nought, since the goods were either used up or not returnable.
Another woman, who gave her name only as Geeta, from Leonora, West Coast of Demerara, claimed that she never realised her fruits, flour and other purchases were short until she commenced measuring them in preparation for mixing and baking.

Trusted grocers
She, too, also accused apparently trusted grocers of defrauding customers of their rightful measures, naming two of them in Stabroek Market.
Most of the complaining shoppers are of the view that the busy Christmas shopping schedule is somewhat the ideal time for grocers to try their scale and weight tricks, since customers would have been too busy to check or even realise that they were robbed.
The complainants want the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) to be more vigilant during Christmastime or to even periodically conduct surveillance and raids on some of the alleged defaulters.