For Father's Day, you went to buy boxes of a certain brand of chocolate for your father and uncles. You tried to hunt down the best bargain, but everywhere you went - whether supermarket, convenience store or drugstore - you found the same price: HK$248 for four boxes.
It is a common frustration for bargain-savvy Hongkongers. But the push is on for a law that would make commerce more competitive.
The proposed 'competition law' seeks to level the playing field for companies in Hong Kong by restricting behaviour that obstructs open and fair competition. But it would also be 'a law for consumers', the Consumer Council says.
'Without a competition law, the price of goods can never be genuinely lowered,' says Connie Lau Yin-hing, the council's chief executive. 'The spirit of the law is to deter businesses from making anti-competitive agreements that could harm consumers.'
Just look around. You can see plenty of examples in daily life that could fit the definition of 'anti-competitive behaviour'.
It is built into the price of noodles you eat. On January 28, 2008, the Hong Kong & Kowloon Vermicelli & Noodle Manufacturing Industry Merchants' General Association posted an advertisement in newspapers 'strongly advising' producers to raise their prices: 'Due to the drastic increase of raw materials such as egg and rice ... after a number of meetings between the association and the sector, we strongly advise members to raise the price of your produce - both retail and wholesale - by 20 to 25 per cent accordingly.'
Anti-competitive behaviour is in the markets where you shop. Last November, the Court of Final Appeal in effect approved bid-rigging when it upheld an acquittal of 17 stallholders who had been charged with conspiracy to defraud. They had agreed to refrain from bidding against each other at an auction for spaces in Tai Po Hui Market.