The negative effects of the crisis in the economy continue to increase. While citizens who are experiencing hard times, resort to various ways to increase their purchasing power; Traders are also looking for a solution. In Elazig, citizens are queuing for stale bread, which is now sold for half the price, in order to buy cheap bread, while bakers reduce their bread production in order to reduce costs. Suat Ağır, who has been a baker in Elazığ since 2002, said that they have not experienced such a troubled period for years and that people now prefer stale bread instead of fresh bread.
“PEOPLE ARE ASKING FOR STALE BAGELS AND PASTRIES”
Fatma Yılmaz, who runs the bagel bakery, said that people now buy stale bagels. Yılmaz stated that people reacted to the bagel sold for 3 Turkish Liras (TL) and that the increasing costs could no longer save themselves. Yılmaz used the following statements: “I have been doing this job for about 9 years. It is our own production, because there is a daily, weekly raise for every product we buy. The hikes have officially finished us off. 10 people, maybe 20 people come and ask for stale bagels and pastries for half the price per day. People are victims. For us, 3 TL is a little money, but for people it's a lot of money. We really are not doing well. If it goes like this, I don't know, maybe we can close as small traders. Because nothing stays in place, it doubles, triples. He says if I want sesame today, if I want it again tomorrow, a raise has come. I want it, he says the raise has come. For how long, someone please put a stop to this.”
“STALE BREADS IS NOW BOUGHT BECAUSE OF POVERTY”
Nihat Diller, a baker, also stated that they reduced bread production and said that they now aim to save the day rather than profit, due to increasing costs. Noting that not only flour, yeast and wood prices, but also diesel prices increase their costs, Diller said: “There are many people asking us for stale bread. We don't keep much stale bread because we don't have any leftovers, we take it out for ourselves. But many are asking. Bakers sell it for half price this time because they can't sell in general. There are bakeries that are closed because of this. Oh, they transfer the bakery to one another. The transferee cannot do much work, too, and he starts to transfer. Hence the economy is zero. The condition of the baker is deplorable. Since people have no purchasing power, they turn to stale bread. They used to buy stale bread for health, now they buy stale bread for poverty.”