By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Shoppers can check on the prices of daily necessities such as detergent, meat and flour on the Internet before deciding where to head for shopping as the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is posting how much each major retailer charges for such items.
Prices of two or three brands of 20 necessary items, including tofu, meat, ham, coffee, bottled water, vegetable oil, wheat flour, sugar, shampoo, toothpaste and detergent will be posted on a daily basis - initially in Seoul, but eventually nationwide.
The information from 11 retailers, ranging from retail outlets and department stores to supermarkets and traditional markets, will be posted at www.tgate.or.kr each week.
The retailers are E-mart, Homeplus, Nonghyup Hanaro and Lotte Mart; Lotte, Hyundai, and Shinsegae department stores; supermarkets run by GS Supermarket, Homeplus Express and Lotte Supermarket; and Suyu Market, a traditional market located in northern Seoul.
"We expect consumers to have more choices through the online price comparison, as it will trigger price competition," a ministry spokesman said.
The government plans to post the prices of more items and retailers - 80 daily necessities sold by 100 businesses - by April.
According to Rep. Park Sang-don of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party, the prices of 52 daily necessity items, which the administration was monitoring, rose by 5.8 percent in 2008, higher than the overall consumer price rise of 4.7 percent.
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