By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Super Value’s owner yesterday asserted its “$500,000 gamble paid off” with the restriction on how many low-priced eggs customers can buy now doubled from just two to four cartons.

Rupert Roberts told Tribune Business that the supermarket chain’s investment in its own brand has “taken the public off noodles and sausages and put them on high-protein eggs at almost one-third of the price they used to be” following the in-store arrival of its first imported shipment priced at $3.79 per carton.

The initiative sparked frenzied scenes in many Super Value stores on Monday, which Mr Roberts described as “almost riots”, with Bahamians snatching egg cartons from each other, dropping them and causing general “chaos”. At the chain’s Nassau Street store, consumers went in the back store room and started distributing the eggs among themselves, while at Prince Charles they were dropped and shattered “all over the floor”.

With just one-and-a-half containers, out of an original six-strong container shipment, yet to be sold as of yesterday morning, the Super Value chief and his executives reassured Bahamians that a further four containers - all containing lower-priced eggs - will arrive in The Bahamas on Tuesday morning with regular weekly deliveries scheduled thereafter.

And, disclosing that Super Value may have to drop self-service and distribute eggs to consumers via its diary department workers to prevent a repeat of Monday’s over-enthusiasm, Mr Roberts said the 13-store chain had “sacrificed” its profit margin to boost Bahamians’ welfare. Instead of a 10 percent government price-controlled mark-up on a dozen eggs priced at between $9-$10, it is now earning the same margin on just $3.79.

And Clifton Fernander, Super Value’s perishables buyer, yesterday reiterated that the lower-priced eggs - sourced from outside the traditional US supply chain - had met all the Government’s health and safety regulatory requirements amid questions over their origin, date, quality and nutritional value. Super Value itself had also tested the eggs’ condition itself by boiling and frying them.

The supermarket chain had signs posted on its store doors early yesterday morning informing consumers they were restricted to purchasing a maximum of two lower-priced egg cartons following Monday’s shopping rush. However, these signs were subsequently removed, and the limit was doubled to four.

“We had, let’s say, you could almost describe them as riots,” Mr Roberts said, after news of Super Value’s lower-priced eggs spread rapidly on Monday. “The customers were snatching eggs from one another, dropping them. It was chaos. I didn’t know eggs, and I have to feel for the word, were in such demand.

“We had six containers in. We had to stop selling them by the case and we had to ration them. Now we’ve gone back to four per customer until the new shipment comes in. There’s another shipment coming in this Tuesday coming.” That will be four containers and, thereafter, the weekly egg imports will rise to six containers.

“That’s all they could put together that fast,” Mr Roberts said of this Tuesday’s four-container shipment. “We can increase [the order] at any time. We’ll adjust the order according to sales. For an experiment to bring the price down, we put just under $500,000 into this [first] container. 

“I would kind of say we have been gambling, but it paid off. We did bring the price down and the demand for eggs is certainly there. We’ve taken the public off noodles and sausage and put them on high-protein eggs at one-third of the price it used to be. I think our gamble paid off.

“They [the supplier] can supply 67 containers a month. I cannot see us getting up to that. I can see us getting up into the 30’s. We’re in the 30’s now, but I can’t see us doubling to get to 60-plus containers a month.” Mr Roberts did not name the source of Super Value’s low-priced egg imports, although it is thought to be another Caribbean country.

The Super Value chief said the first shipment, totalling some 1.296m eggs, would “have sold out in 24 hours” had all six containers been distributed to its stores. Instead, it filled its outlets with “one and a half containers”, and had to do so again on Monday after the initial inventory was bought up. 

“For house wives to get in we stopped selling wholesale - to vendors, restaurants and hotels - so that everybody got some,” Mr Roberts explained. “We had to limit it to two and, when we checked the inventory this morning, we decided to let the house wives have four. If we run out, we run out, but only if it’s for several days. 

“I hope everybody gets some. That’s what we’re trying to do, spread the joy, so that everybody gets some of the low price. I think that’s what has happened. That’s what our goal was. I think the gamble paid off. We were doing other business with that country, found they had rice, sugar and eggs, so we ordered.”

Mr Roberts and Mr Fernander both said Super Value would not have been able to import its own egg brand unless they passed all health and safety inspections by Bahamian regulators. Some consumers had voiced concerns over the shipment’s origin after it was reported that the Turks & Caicos had destroyed almost 25,000 eggs it imported from the Dominican Republic.

Those, though, were imported illegally without going through that island territory’s regulatory and approval processes. In contrast, Mr Roberts said Super Value’s initiative had to pass through the Bahamas Agricultural Health and Food Safety Authority (BAHFSA), as well as the other health and agriculture regulators. 

“We had to clear those three and we were airborne,” he said. “Once we had those three permits we ordered. To clear, you have to submit your invoice to those three departments. We know the eggs are safe, or course, before we offer them to the public. We brought them in, and we tested them ourselves. They looked OK raw, boiled were fine, and fried were fine.”

Mr Fernander added: “The eggs we have imported have met the requirements, standards and quality of what is required by law and regulation. They were deemed safe, and we got all the permits before we ordered. These eggs have met industry standards.” Some 16 further containers have already been ordered by Super Value.

“This morning there was something like a container-and-a-half to go out,” Mr Roberts said. “I hope we have enough to last us until Tuesday. We want to reassure consumers that if we run out, in a couple of days we’ll have them back in and we’ll have enough to distribute to the market. We want to make sure the house wife is able to buy enough to get these low prices going.

“In fact, I’m investigating something that I hope gets the price down by another $1. In the meantime, what’s been happening in the US market is that there’s been no bird flu for a while, and the farmers are building inventory and consumers are pushing back on the price. I expect the prices in the US market to go back to normal - I don’t want to say fairly soon - but that’s where it’s headed.”

While rough seas have prevented the low-priced eggs from reaching Abaco, Mr Roberts said Super Value had “sacrificed” its already-thin egg earnings to deliver the lower prices. “We took a big risk to do this,” he added. “Almost $500,000. We cut our profits from, let’s say 10 percent on $9.89 a carton, down to 10 percent on $3.79. We sacrificed our profit to give consumers this new lower price.

“I hope over-enthusiasm dies down. Once the public knows they can buy eggs at this price any time they want then, this good problem to have will probably go away.”