Most retailers in the country are unaware of the return policy most manufacturing companies give for expired items. To create awareness on this and discuss other topics, around 35 retailers from Thimphu and Paro gathered in the capital yesterday.
Most retailers in the country either try to quietly sell off the expired goods or bear the losses. While some principal companies have a policy called return policy, most retailers are unaware of it. Therefore dumping the expired products rather than returning them. On the other hand, few principal companies in Bhutan have no return policy which makes many retailers incur losses.
The meeting aimed to look into such problems faced by retailers in the country.
“It appears that our retailers are not really aware of these kinds of benefits. So we would like to ensure that the retailers are fully aware, they are informed of these benefits if they source it from the domestic appointed distributor of the principal company rather than going across the border, buying it from their distributors or retailers and not enjoy such benefits that they otherwise are eligible to enjoy,” said Rinchen Lhazom, the Chief Trade Officer at Department of Trade.
According to the Department of Trade, the benefits, however, are only eligible if their products are retailed from the principal companies appointed distributor within the country rather than buying it from across the border. The participants also discussed business ethics issues such as labelling, reading a batch code and hygiene.
Samten Dolkar
