Organisers of shopping boycott in BiH say their action succeeds

Shoppers were called to stay home on Friday in a bid to pressure retailers into lowering prices. Similar calls for boycotts are growing across the region, with social media posts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia urging consumers to refrain from shopping after such a campaign was launched in Croatia in January.

The group called "Boycott BiH" stated on social media that their call for no shopping and no visits to hospitality establishments on Friday was fully successful, although the tax authorities had not published any data to confirm this. The authorities announced that they might do so on Monday.

In larger stores across cities in BiH, there were customers on Friday, so a total boycott did not occur, although sales were somewhat lower than usual for a Friday.

"Media, group members, and even employees report a dramatic decline in sales," the group says in a statement today, highlighting that the citizens of BiH have united this time.

Activists are calling for a reduction in margins and prices, the elimination of monopolistic behaviour, as well as a decrease in taxes and contributions, and a 10% increase in wages, pensions, and disability benefits.

The government of the Federation of BiH has confirmed that a meeting will be held on Monday with representatives from retail and food producers to discuss various ways to limit price increases, including freezing some prices.

This is actually a model already implemented by the Croatian government.

Authorities in the Serb entity of BiH (Republika Srpska), on the other hand, are currently planning only stronger inspection oversight to control price increases, with particular attention to the prices of food products.