Economic problems of dual quality of everyday consumer goods

Abstract

The dual quality of everyday consumer goods has been proven in the EU, although a geographical pattern dividing the EU into eastern and western parts has not been confirmed. This practice of some manufacturers is mainly mentioned from legislative and ethical points of view, yet its economic impact is also not negligible. It often happens that a consumer buys goods in his country in the same or very similar packaging as consumers abroad, however with a different composition (made with lower quality cheaper raw materials, containing a smaller proportion of basic raw materials or with a lower content of goods). The consumer can thus ask why he gets less or a lower quality product for his/her money than consumers abroad. In our research, we focused on Slovak consumers’ perception of the economic dimension of dual quality. According to the results of a survey of 987 respondents, 89% of the respondents have heard of dual quality and 84% of the respondents are concerned about this practice. Most of the respondents (44%) consider it to be an economic problem precisely because of the use of cheaper raw materials and other proportions of basic raw materials in goods. Based on the research results, we propose to incorporate a comparison of prices for goods (in terms of price per unit weight of goods and taking into account the quality and the price of raw materials used) into the uniform methodology of testing goods for dual quality adopted by the European Commission. Furthermore, we propose to include information on dual quality of goods and the use of different raw materials (which are locally available or are allowed in the country and facilitate the processing procedure) on the packaging, which should be taken into account in pricing.