DAGUPAN CITY - The presence of many shopping malls in Pangasinan is a big boon to the province’s consumers, according to the Department of Trade and Industry.

Marjurie Loresco, an offiical of the DTI, said the malls are checking at each other’s prices to ensure that they will not be offering much higher prices for their goods than their competitors.

Speaking on Thursday before the Kapihan ed Dagupan sponsored by the Pangasinan Tri-Media Association (PATRIMA), Loresco said this augurs well for the welfare of the consumers as the lower prices of goods the better for them.

She said consumers are really looking for places where they can buygoods at lower prices so mall owners are constantly watching each other’s prices, to make sure that the cost given them by manufacturers  is right.

She said the malls sometimes give discounts depending on the volume of goods that consumers buy from them.

DTI Provincial Officer Daria Mingaracal said she noticed that at times, the prevailing prices of goods here are even lower than the suggested prices given by manufacturers.

Mingaracal said this is another come-on offer of mall owners to consumers.

“We have the advantage in Dagupan because of the presence of big malls that are selling in big volumes as compared to other places that do not have malls at all,” Loresco continued.

At the same time, Loresco said that the prices of consumer goods in Pangasinan remain stable based on the weekly monitoring by the DTI.

Only four of these goods, luncheon meat, corned beef, cooking oil and flour were noted to have slightly increased their prices while the prices of cement, sugar and liquefied petroleum gas have even decreased.

No businessman has been caught overpricing their goods or violating the price tag law, she added. (PNA)