"More than 50% of Israeli custommers believe that the conduct of local businesses is unfair"

The Federation of Consumer Authority examined the characterization of Israeli consumer behavior in 2019, and the results are fascinating. Only 43% of respondents believe that the conduct of businesses in Israel is fair, while 51% say it is unfair. It should be noted that the perception of fairness of Israeli businesses increases with the income level of the subjects. Another significant figure that emerges from the survey is that 80% of the Israeli public will stop buying from a business that infringes on its workers' rights, and a similar figure has suggested that it would be better to buy from a business that operates out of social responsibility.
Do you also hang out with a club card of one or another network in your wallet? Well, you're not alone. About 72% of the Israeli public are members of at least one consumer club, with about half being members of 3-2 clubs at the same time. This is a significant increase over last year, at 43%. Most of the members of the clubs testified that they did use the benefits provided by the club, mainly taking advantage of the discounts and benefits in cafes and restaurants.
Standing with the shopping cart near the cashier and checking the invoice? Well, you belong to a large group of Israelis who act that way. How big? About 95% of Israelis say that they often check invoices on the marketing networks at some frequency, most (44%) do so frequently. 86% of those who checked this invoice paid off, and they did encounter a mistake.
The Histadrut Consumer Authority also sought to ascertain the extent to which direct marketing networks in Israel have entered our lives. Well, the majority of the Israeli public (about 54%) usually makes purchases on the direct websites of the networks at one frequency or another. And how far have price comparisons come into our lives? About 56% of the public usually compares prices online before buying any food products with any frequency (this is a leap from last year's data, then the figure was about 37%). About a third of respondents said they did so frequently. Another surprising figure relates to the infiltration of the independent funds in the food chains, according to which about 54% of the respondents use these funds, with close to one-third of them doing so frequently. Twenty-five percent of respondents replied that they did not pay at all or did not know them.
We all have the branded carry bags of the various food chains at home, but how far did we really say goodbye to the bags? So we asked the Israelis whether, after three years of passing the law to reduce the use of bags, which requires the consumer to pay 10 pennies for each bag, they still buy bags: about 74% of Israelis find it difficult to break up and usually buy bags at the checkout as often as one third They testified that they did so frequently, while 26% stated that they did not buy any bags at all.
About 12 years ago, a regulation was passed requiring food chains to display the price per unit of measure. The purpose of the law was to help the consumer compare similar product prices in different packages. To the question, do you use price per unit of measure, answered about 64% of respondents that they often or always use the units that allow comparison.
Nearly half of the public (about 43%) feel that they are aware of most of their rights as a consumer in Israel, on the other hand, a similar proportion (about 48%) feel unconscious. We also asked, in transactions involving a written agreement, such as purchasing an insurance policy, taking out a loan, joining a cellular service, etc., that you usually read the agreement you sign - slightly more than a third (about 38%) indicated that they read all or Most of the terms of the written agreements are signed. On the other hand, a similar proportion of the public (about 39%) reads only a small portion or does not read at all.
The CEO of the Israel Consumer Authority, Adv. Yaron Levinson, emphasizes that: "Israeli consumers deserve to have their clear positions on prioritizing businesses that do not violate workers' rights, and businesses that operate out of social responsibility." Levinson, "The ever-increasing use of tools that allow the consumer to check and compare prices such as: units of measure, websites, apps and more, indicates that the consumer is better able to make his shopping, at least in part, more viable and affordable."
The survey was conducted among 600 respondents, in a representative sample of those aged 18 and over in the Israeli population. The Histadrut Consumer Authority provides the public with a guide that provides important and detailed information to the public in the field of consumerism as another means of fulfilling the objective of the Histadrut to reduce gaps in society.