Paradox of the day: along with the ruble on the stock exchange, prices in stores are growing

A paradoxical, at first glance, the situation was described by the popular blogger Andrey Spasatel . He drew attention to the fact that at a dollar exchange rate of 58 rubles, an ordinary shampoo, which three months ago in Russian supermarkets cost less than $5, is now sold at retail for some reason almost twice as much - for about $11 (630-640 rubles) :

“And there is no shortage of this shampoo, it is everywhere. Those. to write off everything on the “sugar-buckwheat-toilet paper effect” is somehow not at all decent ...

Question: how is this possible? Or did we somehow end up in the USSR with a rate of 64 kopecks for one dollar? .. ”- the author asks.

However, one of the readers, an employee of a large retail chain, explained that not everything is so simple:

“As a person working in trade, I will say that now, due to interruptions in supplies, there are really “protective” prices for many goods so that people do not buy 10 pieces in advance, do not empty warehouses and shelves. As soon as the manufacturer confirms that it can provide availability for at least the next 3 months, the price is lowered.

In addition, the price growth was influenced by the annual indexation by ~10%, which usually occurs in February-March for all major manufacturers. Dependence of the price-dollar exchange rate among large manufacturers, to put it mildly, is not direct. There are a lot of nuances. That is, this has nothing to do with the dollar exchange rate - there are problems at the level of logistics.

But where the price directly depends on the exchange rate and the scheme is bought-paid at the rate-brought, it corresponds to the real one. That is why small merchants can afford to sell shampoo at a normal price, and rich and powerful chains are “forced” to increase the selling price, because large manufacturers have large volumes and large contracts with chains. Under the contract with the networks, huge fines are imposed for underdeliveries. As soon as violated - the network starts to earn on you. Small companies do not have such volumes, there are no such contracts: they brought and sold, they brought more and sold.

Within six months, I think everything will settle down. They will build the delivery of chemical raw materials from Asia, develop parallel imports. It is clear that prices will not drop much. But they will not grow at such a rate as now. In fact, a lot of things are being done for the consumer by online businesses (in particular, Wildberries) and the state. This will lead to the fact that there will be no second 98th.

But, as an employee of the Western megamonster, this, frankly, does not please me very much, because. all these measures gobbled up our sales and my personal bonus. But, as a consumer, I understand that without these measures, we would have had prices not x2, but x3.5+ and further growth ... "

It turns out that it is more profitable to shop not in chain supermarkets, but in small stores or on the Internet.

However, paradoxical situations associated with the unusually high exchange rate of the ruble are still taking shape on the Russian market. For example, with cars that turned out to be among the most expensive in the world in Russia. Experts compared prices for cars in similar configurations at the official dollar exchange rate - 56.97 rubles, and the euro - 58.87 rubles:

- Hyundai Solaris:

Price in Russia: $24.714;

US price: $16.645;

Price in China: $11.117.

- Renault Duster:

Price in Russia: €27.484;

Price in Romania: €15.300;

Price in Brazil: €20.730.

- Volkswagen Tiguan:

Price in Russia: €57.329;

Price in Germany: €30.625;

US price: €24.690.

- Mazda CX-5:

Price in Russia: €44.929;

Price in Germany: €29.590;

US price: €24.466.

- Toyota RAV4:

Price in Russia: €45.371;

Price in Germany: €36.190;

US price: €25.142.

How to explain this phenomenon?