I was in the market to buy a few things and then I realised that quality has dropped but prices has increased, worth is misappropriated and profiteering becomes outrageous and pushed by excessive greeds of retailers, overtime this has happened.
The Brand Scam
The market is filled with imitation of brands like Gucci, Armani, Dolce and gabbana, Prada and balanciaga. Filled with remade products bearing the names of international brands so much that it becomes really difficult to spot between the real brand products and the imitated products.
Experts are filled everywhere caricaturing and trying so hard to sell their products using all these brand names and creating what I call a price riot. Price riot is an outrageous place of value in naira on a product that should be worth less but sold using a brand name that is not the origination of that product.
The Nigerian market is aggrandised when it comes to money, value and worth and quality is hardly recognised by prices. Originally we have a market segmentation. But this is diminishing because the various levels of segment wants to sell at the value of those at the top segment in other not to be seen as "cheap and neglected".
For example, okrika are second hand or London used clothes that are known peculiarly for their distinctive smell, their variable quality (due it to being foreign produce) but then their most unique quality is that it is cheap and affordable for people who do not have a lot of money.
Another segment is the fairly new made clothe costlier than the okrika but then this only seem costlier because it's is new and sold at the rate of new products. The next segment is the one you call the "boutique material", these ones are outrageously expensive simple because they're well packaged, sold in malls and big stores, they're of relatively good quality like the okrika but has more chances of having more quality. This was how the cloth market was segment in the past. BUT NOW?
Killing the Segmentation
These segmentations are gone because the bridge has been closed, any of these clothes are rewashed, remade, repackaged and rebranded and are confusingly sold at outrageous monies. The segmentation in the past made it easier to place price valuation on a cloth but these retail owners have gone a little smarter.
They have taken opportunity of the fact that these international brands cannot sue them since they're in remote places with faceless production companies manufacturing goods using brand name that doesn't belong to them and selling at the rate that that brand would originally sell so as to to arouse suspicious that the product is fake. Another thing is, there's no price regulation in the market.
The Greed Of Retailers
Prices aren't decided by cost of production, inflation or government policies only. It's now determined on the greed of retailers who set outrageous price valuation on the end consumers for products that are not 100% quality in the first place.
Government hasn't taken regulations of the market rather seriously. Things like Covid-19 rules on social distancing has even increased prices of servicing in a lot of economics and finance sector all over the state.
Price regulation is something we can no longer find anywhere and people would have no option but to buy especially if there aren't reasonable price actions amongst retailers. In reality value isn't reciprocated in price anymore this is because we buy into excessive packaging and the lies of retailers.
Quality isn't reciprocated in the amount a product or service goes for. It's often dependent on demand, the willing of the end consumer to buy. In retrospect this affects the value of the naira going forward. When price valuation is ballistic without checks it's a peep into the future of a zero value to the Nigerian naira .