(Finance) – Faced with the uninterrupted controversies of recent weeks on the affair of the so-called “inflated receipts”, Fipe, the Italian Federation of Public Businesses of Confcommercio, has decided to intervene to bring the overall point of view of the category of Public Exercises, which comes out heavily penalized by these episodes. “On the one hand, – underlines Fipe in a note – it should be emphasized that, over the last two years, in the face of a generalized increase in costs, bars and restaurants have adjusted their price lists, remaining on average below the general inflation dynamic If the average inflation for the entire economy was 14% between July 2021 and July 2023, this figure stood at 11% in the restaurant business. such as pasta, have recorded an increase of more than 30%.This certainly does not justify the lack of transparency towards customers or the attempt to give courtesy a hidden price for the consumer.However, the surge in costs explains the strategic, if not vital, importance for the sector’s activities to strongly rethink their management models and the valorisation of the service which is part of the product purchased in the Public Establishment as much as the dish that is consumed”.
“Bars and restaurants are called ‘public exercises’ and this also implies an entrepreneurial mission: that of service as a vocation which is, and must be, a central axis of the values of catering. Even if I believe that the controversies do not affect the passion and frequenting bars and restaurants by Italians, there is no doubt that anyone who violates the principle of transparency damages the image and the work of the entire category – he declared Lino Enrico Stoppani, president of FIPE-Confcommercio –. On the other hand, this does not mean that the service should not be valued and remunerated and the continuation of the controversies on the subject is unfortunately an indicator of how poorly rooted the awareness and culture of service is in our country. Behind every request there are people who work, salaries to pay, a complex and expensive organizational machine: the problem is not the prices, but the care of the relationship with the customer, who must freely decide whether the service and the product are worth the honestly proposed price. As a Federation, we work to foster and strengthen the bond between businesses and consumers because we are faced with demanding challenges regarding the maintenance of consumption and our model of sociality”.