From Car to Meat Instalments; Iranians are Forced to Borrow to Survive

"Tara credit purchase is now active at Mester Ghassab [The Master Butcher]; you can now order the meat you need using Tara credit."

This is the text of a commonplace promotional SMS sent to some Tehran residents over the past few days. At first glance, it might look like a modern welfare amenity. Online shopping platforms unveil a new feature using a cheerful tone and celebratory emojis, but behind this digital storefront lies a terrifying shift in the economic structure of the household.

Once, during the post-war era and throughout the 1990s and 2000s, installments and credit were concepts tied to capital and durable goods. People took out loans to buy houses or register for cars. These days, however, installments and credit have reached the household dinner table. Simply put, the skyrocketing inflation rate has forced people to buy even essential items, like meat and poultry, on installment plans.

Wages Falling Behind the Inflation Train

Data from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) in recent years explains why Iranian dinner tables have become dependent on installments. While the annual wage increases for workers and employees have typically been set within the 20% to 35% range, the annual inflation rate for food items fluctuated within the 40% to 60% channel, and for certain food items, it even surpassed the 100% threshold.

This deep chasm manifests clearly in the shocking statistics regarding per capita meat consumption:

The 2000s: Per capita meat consumption was around 13 kg per year.

Recent Years: According to SCI estimates, this has dropped to 6 kg per year.

Unofficial Reports: Some unofficial figures place this number as low as 3 kg.

Inequality in meat consumption also exists across different income deciles, with the consumption of high-income deciles reported to be more than five times that of low-income deciles. Consequently, when the country's per capita protein consumption plummets to less than one-third of the global average, the market is forced to alter its traditional sales formulas just to keep its production and distribution chain alive.

Technology in the Service of Survival

In this crisis-ridden landscape, "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) platforms have stepped into the arena as short-term solutions. Annual reports from the Iran Fintech Association show that the market for these platforms has experienced explosive growth of several hundred percent in recent years. Interestingly, unlike global patterns where credit is utilized for purchasing clothing, electronic gadgets, or recreational travel, a massive share of transactions on Iranian platforms is dedicated to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and everyday services.

In reality, to avoid losing their customers entirely, essential goods vendors have been forced to connect to banking and credit systems. Ordinary citizens and low-income demographics have no choice but to utilize these options to stock their family dinner tables. On one hand, it cannot be denied that these platforms play a supportive role in the short term; acting as a temporary shield, they prevent the complete elimination of nutrients from the diets of middle-class and working-class families, preserving immediate food security. However, the flip side of the coin tells a far darker tale.

The Debt Trap and the Aesthetics of Poverty

The core critique regarding the normalization of buying essential goods on installment can be examined from two perspectives:

Cannibalizing Tomorrow to Survive Today: According to economic reports, the fourth to seventh income deciles (the lower-middle class) make up a large portion of these platforms' users. An employee paying installments for meat consumed last month has, in reality, spent next month's income before even receiving it. This trend traps society in a permanent debt cycle. The laborer works today not to invest or build a future, but to settle the bill for food consumed in months past.

Normalizing a Structural Anomaly: The most dangerous aspect of this phenomenon is the tone used to portray it. When marketing structures frame the necessity of buying meat on installment with celebratory emojis—presenting it as a convenience option and a sign of digital development—they are actually normalizing a deep crisis. This promotional language hides the pain of being unable to afford basic necessities under a cloak of modernity and the prestige of credit shopping.

Exploitation via Credit Scoring

The prevalence of installment shopping for essential goods in today's Iran is a perfect mirror of an economy where non-durable consumer goods have taken on the function of capital goods. These statistics and charts indicate that while installment options for essential items act as a short-term balm on the wounds of people's purchasing power, in the long run, they sound an alarm for the financialization of daily life a condition where even the simplest human biological needs are tied to an app credit score.

Utilizing artificial intelligence, credit platforms monitor the financial behavior of citizens. They assign scores based on past on-time payment history, income level, account turnover, and everyday consumer habits within the apps. In this framework, a credit score is no longer a luxury tool for securing major industrial or housing loans; instead, it has become a vital artery connected directly to the dinner table.

A drop in a laborer's credit score means being barred from buying meat and rice at the end of the month. By creating a pattern of forced consumption, this system compels individuals to slash other vital expenditures, such as healthcare and education, just to maintain their score and ensure their family's survival.

In other words, by weaponizing credit scores, these platforms have turned being in debt into a virtue and a prerequisite for staying alive a cycle where humans' biological need for protein is dictated entirely by algorithms.