Dear Editor,
As a frequent shopper and a member of society, I’m entitled to make this issue garner more attention. Prices all throughout Belize seem to know no boundary, as they have been rising higher and higher! It has now become common to go to a store and find out that your favorite snack or commonly used ingredients now cost 25 and up to 50 cents more. Margarine, which used to cost $1.75 a pound, now costs $1.85. That is a 10-cent increase. The price of your favorite Del Monte fruit cocktail has surprisingly risen about $2 more. Aluminum foil that used to cost $1.50 now costs $1.75. The issue, unfortunately, does not stop there. This goes beyond ingredients, items, and snacks. We see that gasoline prices have also risen once more. Why have prices climbed another step in the ladder when society is struggling enough to survive during this pandemic? Why is this occurring when people are practically working to the bone to earn just enough to feed their families?

Prices need to be stabilized. People already have enough on their shoulders with the pandemic and the scarcity of jobs in our country. It is understandable that some items do need price increase, but what we’re seeing right now is that everything is changing, and not for the better. It may seem ridiculous to complain about a 10-cent difference, but when everything is slowly changing, we’ll later find out that it won’t only be a 10-cent increase but an increase of 25 cents, 50 cents, and so on. To those far up the ladder of prosperity it may not seem like a problem, but what about the unfortunate, what about the ones who are struggling to make ends meet? We should take everyone into consideration and stabilize the prices.

Sincerely,
Jackie Guerra