Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.06.2008, Blaðsíða 6

06 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 07 2008 | Interview
Gunnar Hjálmarsson (AKA Dr. Gunni) is a musi-
cian, author, journalist and blogger who, until re-
cently, was probably best known for the DIY punk
(and later pop) he churned out in the eighties and
nineties, and as the conductor of a TV music quiz
show. After devoting a section of his blog to keep-
ing track of stores that blatantly overcharge their
customers, however, he is gaining fame as a sort
of consumer watchdog. This culminated last month
when Hjálmarsson received the first annual con-
sumer award from the Ministry of Business Affairs
for his work on the behalf of Icelandic consumers.
He told the Grapevine about Icelandic pricing poli-
cies.
What’s the story behind your overprice-
watch?
I was inspired to start it after sharing lunch with a
friend at a restaurant called The Great Wall. The
food was fine, but we were flabbergasted when
we realised we were being charged 350 ISK for
a small bottle of Coke. Instead of just mumbling
complaints into my chest, which is the Icelandic
reaction to being overcharged, I decided to do
something about it and made a slot on my website
devoted to exposing overchargers. Pretty soon
people started sending in their own examples of
unreasonable pricing around the country. After
being on-line for seven months, the site now lists
nearly a thousand examples of varyingly brutal
overcharging.
Did you expect it to grow so popular as a
venting place for the over-charged, under-
paid Icelandic public?
Not really. But it got a lot of media attention from
the outset, and then when the so-called depres-
sion hit us after Easter it really started growing.
Everything went up by 30–40% in an instant; the
head of the biggest grocery retail chain pretty
much declared open season on the Icelandic
consumer and newspaper headlines literally
screamed “Awful price hikes coming!” Everybody
jumped at the opportunity to raise their prices
dramatically, whether it was a barbershop, gro-
cery store or electronics outlet. They all jumped
the overpricing bandwagon, citing the drop of the
Icelandic króna, imminent recession, etc.
Then it got more exposure when I was
awarded the newfangled “Consumer award”
last month, by the Minister of Business Affairs,
Björgvin G. Sigurðsson. I got sent over fifty exam-
ples in the following hours. So basically whenever
the site gets a mention in the media I get a barrage
of new examples to put on there.
Could you explain the concept of the site?
It’s basically just a list of examples of overpricing
that I’ve encountered myself or that people have
e-mailed me. It doesn’t have an elaborate layout,
although several people have approached me of-
fering to make one. Perhaps it’ll be all fancy some
day, but for now I merely copy-paste whatever
people send me, weeding out what’s obviously
misleading or false.
The Icelandic form of competition allows for
a lot of overpricing, so I get a lot of examples. The
same supplier will ship detergent to three differ-
ent stores – all owned by the same corporation
– where it’ll be sold for 2.000 ISK at the first store,
1.100 at the second and 700 at the last one. 10-11,
Hagkaup and Bónus, for example. Of course you’ll
shop at Bónus, that’s simple economics. Take 10-
11, their prices are so steep that you should only
really shop there in an emergency. If you need
milk at seven AM on a Saturday morning, when
everything else is closed. I guess in those cases it’s
OK to pay 20% more.
So your site is an example of what happens
when DIY punks start running families? They
become self-empowered consumer watch-
dogs?
It’s pretty DIY. There are of course all sorts of agen-
cies and institutions that are supposed to serve the
average consumer and ensure they’re being treat-
ed fairly. However, people are confused as to their
purpose and the services they provide. They’re
also maybe too established to print allegations
like the ones I have on my page. So I guess it’s a lit-
tle punk, this whole thing, but it’s also pretty much
in tune with the Icelandic discourse syndrome. It’s
customary to write off consumer complaints as
mere nagging, something that’s painfully un-cool.
When being overcharged, most Icelanders would
rather reach for their credit cards and look the
other way before signing on to three additional
months of overtime at work.
Have you seen any results since you started
the page?
The best result would be that people start thinking
with their wallets more, note the examples on the
page and make sure to not shop at places that are
guilty of blatant overcharging. I think the site can
in some ways be said to have added to consumer
consciousness, so maybe those are results.
It’s also necessary to call attention to what’s be-
ing done well, and this is why I also list examples
of good service and ehrm... non-overpricing. If
people have examples of stores or corporations
acting from a community perspective instead of
simply reaching for their customers’ savings every
chance they get, they should definitely send them
over.
In your experience, is Iceland more expen-
sive than other countries around the world?
Yes. Many surveys have shown that everything is
ridiculously expensive in Iceland. I guess lack of
competition doubled with our lack of consumer
consciousness goes a long way to explain it. Over-
pricing has been a fact in Iceland for a long time.
A few years ago all the Icelandic oil companies
were discovered to have illegally conspired on
pricing policies; it was basically proved that they
had been cheating their customers for years by
deliberate overpricing. When the story broke, no-
body cared. In fact the Icelandic nation celebrat-
ed by collectively going to the gas station to buy
hot dogs and cokes while their cars were filled up
with overpriced gas. Any country that responds in
that manner is of course prime ground for over-
chargers.
What’s changed in Iceland since the 1980s?
What’s mainly changed is that we now have mem-
bers of society that are so incredibly rich that they
might as well be a different species than the rest
of us. Twenty years ago we had guys that maybe
earned five times what an average worker would,
and you could understand why. They owned fish-
ing factories or fancy hotels. In the last decade,
however, we’ve welcomed a breed of people, guys
younger than me that make 150 times the average
salary each day and ride around in private jets.
And nobody knows what they do, or why they
deserve all that money. I’ve pretty much stopped
understanding how our society works.
Are you more aware of these consumer mat-
ters since you started the site?
Of course. But you don’t really want to dwell too
much on these things when summer’s here and
all. It gets tiring after a while, listening to people
complain, even if the complaints are warranted.
You just want to get out to the sunlight and get
a tan. And that’s what always happens. Summer
comes and the rage passes; the fight goes out of
people and while they’re looking the other way ev-
eryone raises their prices. I hope people stay alert.
You can make a lot of money out of it too; salaries
in this country aren’t so high that you can afford
not going to the store that’s going to save you 3.000
ISK on each shopping basket. That’s two hours of
overtime you don’t have to work, time you could
spend with your family.
So do you have any advice for the Icelandic
consumer, or visiting consumers?
Just try and shop at the nice places that don’t over-
charge you, and shun the expensive stores. Of
course, both stores are owned by the same guy, so
it’s hard to punish him by shunning one of them...
I don’t know. I put some hope into our business
minister, he has shown a certain interest in the af-
fairs of the working class and hopefully he’ll stay
on that track.
Speaking of politics, have you thought about
running for office? Being man of the people
and all.
No. None of the parties are cool enough for me.
They’re all trash. I don’t really see the purpose in
running for any of those parties. Things are pretty
shitty here... But at least we’re not going through
civil war or anything, yet. And summer’s here now,
so we’ll get a tan.
Text by Haukur S. Magnússon
Everything is Expensive in Iceland
“When being over-
charged, most Icelanders
would rather reach for
their credit cards and
look the other way, be-
fore signing on to three
additional months of
overtime at work.”
Dr. Gunni – the Dr. J. of the consumer watchdogs.
Photo by GAS