January the 27th, 2025 – The recent Croatian retail strike yielded significant results, with the Tax Administration having released its latest data proving that. Will the retailers themselves present with any reaction, however?
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Josip Kelemen is an adviser to the consumer platform “Hello, Inspector!”, which was among the first to call for the recently held Croatian retailer boycott. He admitted that he was quite surprised by the huge response to this action, pointing out that people had sent out a very clear message about having had more than enough of spiralling price increases.

“This is the very first time that people have sent out a strong message regardless of political or other affiliation and said we’re absolutely fed up with enormous price increases, we’re fed up with inflation, do something about it, start solving the problem,” Kelemen said on the HRT show “Studio 4.”
He also reported that some stores had lowered the prices of certain products during the day of the Croatian retailer boycott itself. Although this may seem like a mere sly marketing ploy to some, Kelemen believes that retailers have recognised the message. “This shows that retailers are still scared,” he said, adding that some retail chains have permanently reduced their prices on more than 1,000 items by as much as 20 to 30 percent.

Kelemen then cited a drugstore chain as an example of this. That particular store was initially selling a product at a price of 2.75 euros across Croatia, while the same product cost only 90 cents in its country of origin. “Such an illogical price markup naturally irritated consumers, and now that drugstore chain lowered the price of that product to 1.25 euros. So, it’s obvious that prices can indeed be adjusted,” he concluded.
Has the Croatian retailer boycott had a lasting effect on the mentality of the retail sector, or is this simply going to die down with prices shooting upwards again? Only time will tell.