The Maximum Retail Price (MRP) system, designed as a consumer protection tool, often ends up being manipulated in a way that harms the consumer and distorts market competition.
The Fake Discount Trap
The most common misuse by manufacturers, especially when selling online, is offering products with deliberately high MRP to allow retailers to show massive discounts during festive sales (e.g., 50%-70% off). This creates a false sense of savings and a strong psychological incentive for the consumer to purchase, even if the discounted price is still higher than the product's actual market worth or cost of production.
How can a 50% discount be offered throughout the year? And if the answer is yes, what is the meaning of MRP?
Lack of Transparency
For the consumer, the MRP is an opaque number. There is no publicly available breakdown showing the true cost of production, logistics, taxes, and profit margins. This lack of a clear, justifiable formula allows for arbitrary price setting at the manufacturing level.
Consumer Distrust
When consumers repeatedly find that a product consistently sells far below its printed MRP, the entire pricing structure loses credibility. This leads to consumer distrust in both the brand and the retail system, making them skeptical of genuine deals.
Call for Regulation
To combat overcharging and price gouging, the government should intervene with regulations, particularly on essential goods.
Wider Impact
Inflated MRP is not just a consumer issue; it impacts the entire retail ecosystem.
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