By Tomiwa Olonisakin

There are two ways providers of goods and services can respond to the near-apocalyptic economic conditions in which the country currently is. Well, there are three ways. First? Close shop. Hardly sensible. I doubt if businesses see this as an option until they just cannot go on.

One of the more sensible is to, as input/operational costs soar, retain prices/implement marginal increases and lower the goods/services quality. This, of course, sparks discontent. It just lacks the action-hero energy that customarily attends upward price reviews. The makers of a famous sausage brand, as operational costs keep rising, have kept reducing the size of the product and, of course, the filling. They have kept the price or adjusted it a little.

But customers are no mugs. They know that what they now are getting as the product is an apparition; a shell of what it was. It’s shorter, slimmer and has colouring where it used to have beef. Does the customer still get the same value? Of course not. Is the brand still the hot number it was? No.

The other is to adjust prices to be economic situation-reflective and enough to maintain quality of goods/services. This, naturally, gets most customers in an almighty fit. Only the wealthy are indifferent to upward price reviews, treating them like water on a duck’s back. The rest of us would weep, wail and moan like an immigrant facing deportation.

In the last few days, wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth are what we have done since pay television company, MultiChoice Nigeria, announced new prices for its services effective 6 November. Even at the best of times, MultiChoice’s price adjustments seem to rankle more than anyone else’s. And these, definitely, are not the best of times, especially in view of the car crash the economy is and the fact that this is the second tariff adjustment exercise this year.