In the few years following Croatia joining the Eurozone in 2023, cracks in the economy became too obvious for people to ignore. The economic aftershock of Covid-19 coupled with energy price inflation linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a rapid increase in the cost of living across the countries of former Yugoslavia, which the currency transition in Croatia only worsened.
Now the people are hitting back. In late January, a Facebook page with 127,000 followers named Halo, Inspektore (Hello Inspector) organized a boycott of all major supermarket chains for two consecutive Fridays, before launching a week-long boycott of a single chain decided by a poll. The boycotts saw consumers spend around $60 million less at German-owned Lidl and DM and Italian-owned Eurospin in the first two Fridays alone, instead reportedly opting for small, domestic markets and organic food stands. Other countries in the region followed suit, with consumer protests across Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
