Shoppers stare at price increases as shilling jitters continue

Retail chains are revising upwards the price of commodities they stock and scaling back on expansion plans as the effects of the changing cost of credit and the weakening shilling begins to bite.

Commodities that have been hit include products that are directly affected by immediate changes in import costs such as plastics—or any product that is derived from plastics--and toilet paper. So far, manufacturers and retailers have chosen to absorb the changes in costs in most basic commodities such as unga, bread, milk, cooking oil among others but should the trend continue they will be forced to pass these costs to the end consumer.