Chamber of Commerce president Charles Gosling has admitted a small minority of retailers are selling "ridiculously over-priced" goods which undermine the efforts of others to give good value.

But he said given the salaries paid and the difficulty in getting goods to the Island, Bermuda's shops in general were competitive.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox took a side-swipe at retailers on Friday when he said they had not been as "progressive" as they had been in the past in their pricing but they have "seen the light" and deserve support for the Buy Bermuda campaign.

Buy Bermuda has been launched to encourage residents to shop on the Island to boost the the retail trade which has been hard hit by the poor tourism season and dramatic slump following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Gosling told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "The consumer does have justifiable gripes from time to time when something is ridiculously over-priced compared to the US or a case were (the goods) are out of date.

"The retailer is asking the consumer to re-look (in the Buy Bermuda campaign), and the retailer needs to do that as well. It's not the standard, but there have been cases.

"It is like when you get good service, you tell two or three people, but when you get something unacceptable or providing you with a bad experience, you tell nine or ten people.

"Unfortunately, there are one or two cases that cloud the Bermuda shopping experience for the rest. Overall, given where we are located and the difficulty getting our products in, the high standard of living in Bermuda and the salaries that are needed to support it, I do think we are quite competitive."

Mr. Gosling did not name any companies, but in a letter to The Royal Gazette last Thursday, one reader complained about goods sold at astronomical prices here compared to the US.

The writer asked why he should pay $80 in Bermuda for a Canon black ink printer cartridge when he could buy it in the US for $1.95. Stating "you do the math", he said he bought five in the US for a total of $13.95 including Zip Express charges. And he pointed out the printer only cost $35.