Local cafés are very common among consumers in Macao, and in respond to consumers' requests to get more information about prices of local cafés, Consumer Council collected prices of takeaway hot milk tea four times during December 2011 to November 2012. Collected prices of takeaway milk tea ranged from $7.5 to $14.0. Prices of takeaway milk tea from 37 local cafés were collected in the most recent survey in November and the most common price range was $9.0 to $10.0, which was about 60 percent of the surveyed prices; the lowest and highest price collected this time were $7.5 and $14.0 respectively, which was equivalent to a difference of over 53 percent. Prices of takeaway milk tea were collected in all four surveys, and the Council was able to collect comparable figures of takeaway milk tea prices from 31 local cafés. Price adjustment was not observed in 8 of the local cafés while 23 of them had adjusted their prices of takeaway milk tea in the past 12 months. Similar results were found in takeaway hot coffee and egg sandwich. In comparison with data collected in July, 3 cafés adjusted their prices of takeaway coffee and the surveyed prices ranged from $7.5 to $16.0. Further, prices of takeaway toast with butter and egg sandwich had also been increased, though prices of takeaway toast with butter at 3 cafés had been decreased by 8 to 14 percent in the most recent survey. The lowest price collected for toast with butter was $6.0 whereas the highest price recorded was $13.0, which equaled to a price difference of over 100 percent. The current survey also collected prices of canned soft drink (Coke) sold at local cafés. Among the 32 cafés which sold the mentioned product, prices ranged from $4.2 to $13.0, resulting in an average price of $8.4. However, according to the Council's 'Supermarket price survey', prices of the same product sold in over 20 supermarkets ranged from only $3.4 to 4.2, which had an average price of $3.63. Prices of the same canned soft drink differ for over 130 percent in local cafés and supermarkets. Consumers are advised to compare and adjust daily expenditure to save money. In order to ensure consumer rights to access information, F&B outlets are called on to clearly and timely state their selling prices of food and beverage items. Consumers are also advised to actively ask for such prices to protect themselves. The abovementioned survey result is now available on the Consumer Council's website (www.consumer.gov.mo).
