July 29, 2008
Italians dial up best food price
A text messaging service set up by the Italian government is helping its citizens to haggle on their high street. The BBC reports.
"... If Italians feel that their local food retailer is charging unreasonable prices, they can now call on a new service to help them haggle or walk away.
Thanks to a text messaging system set up jointly by the Italian agriculture ministry and consumer associations, shoppers can check the average price of different foods in northern, central and southern Italy.
The new system lets consumers type the name of the food product they want to price check into their mobile phone and send a free text message to a dedicated number.
After a few seconds you will receive an SMS that will tell you the different prices in the different areas of Italy."
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