Anyway, based on the track-record of how the same party was voted the best government in the globe since independence by the people themselves, you’ve to take the inflation as something you should be proud of. Anyway, while I was shopping for some groceries the other day at Carrefour (not that I always go to this place) I noticed something very interesting happened at one corner of the giant wholesale supermarket. It could be due to slow business or simply because the management has found a new creative way to increase sales.

You can see and hear a DJ (I bet he works in Disco during night-time) speaking to a group of curious onlookers on what he’s going to offer next. Enter auction – a term synonym with eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY, stock) and a concept which is part of Westerners’ daily life but is something very new and still unacceptable in Malaysia. What happened was this DJ will put an opening price (claimed to be half-price) on electronic items to be auction out and everybody can bid and subsequently raise the bid until the official time-out (normally 5 – 10 minutes). The highest bid will be the winner and will pay for the item.

There was one time when a Sony (NYSE: SNE, stock) TV was being auctioned for $200 when the actual price was $500. When it came to Samsung (SEO: 005930) Plasma TV bid, there was this auntie and an uncle bidding for it with the starting price at about $ 1,500. Ultimately you can see this uncle was an experienced bidder and raise the bid at the very last minute (a simple tactic) to become the winner.

Overall I think this is a very good business proposition for both parties. Carrefour can get rid of old stock and customers can purchase it at a deep discount. Unless you can’t live with an out-dated model (not that this model is 10-years old, mind you), I think this is another method to save money and plan your financial to survive throughout the neverending inflation.