While the government is going to abandon its plan for an “anti-inflation basket” and leave the choice to distributors to offer a selection of cheaper products themselves, the CEO of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard, has announced the launch of his own, in an interview at Sunday newspaper this March 5. The basket will be made up of 200 products sold on average two euros and “at blocked prices” until mid-June, he specifies. Half will concern everyday products (laundry, nappies, flour), the other will be products labeled “healthy” (yogurts, eggs, fresh vegetables, milk), with a Nutri-Score A and B.
The group will launch this “essential and nutrition” basket – the composition of which was chosen during round tables with the brand’s customers – on the shelves of its 5,945 French stores in ten days, he adds. This follows the abandonment of the “project for a uniform basket common to all brands”, mentioned in December by the Minister of SMEs Olivia Grégoire, “but since rejected by most distributors”, writes the JDD. “We have found a very good agreement with the Minister” of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, said Alexandre Bompard. “He decided to leave everyone the freedom to define the operations of their choice”. “It was essential that all the actors be able to commit at the same time, but with full autonomy of action. The result will be all the more powerful,” he says.
Christiane Lambert, the president of the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers’ Unions), also declared on Saturday on France info having met Bruno Le Maire at the Agricultural Show, who confirmed that there would be no anti-inflation basket but that the government would rather ask distributors “to make the effort to make less margins”.
Inflation in France accelerated again in February, by 6.2% over one year, after 6% in January, driven mainly by a jump in food prices of 14.5%, according to the first estimate of INSEE published on Tuesday. In response, the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire had promised measures at the beginning of the week in the coming days, when he was to receive again the actors of the large distribution.
Not a new initiative
Carrefour is not the first to launch this “anti-inflation basket”. In early February, its competitor System U announced that it was launching its basket of “150 products at cost price”, for “an indefinite period”. Among them, flour, pasta, mayonnaise, oil, coffee, honey, tuna, or even yogurts; the whole being private label, that is to say products whose brand is the owner of the brand.
Intermarché, he also unveiled the upcoming launch of a basket including “500 anti-inflation products”. It will be made up of a “wide selection of 470 products from its brands” and “30 fresh products from traditional shelves – meat, fish, fruit or vegetables”, according to a press release.
“We are for a fight for accessibility for all. We don’t just want to lower the prices of 40 or 50 items, it’s a bit of a trap. When everything goes up, we have to ensure the promise on all products “, for his part reacted Michel-Édouard Leclerc, the CEO of the eponymous group, on Europe 1. Unlike its competitors, the group prefers to bet on a “cost price operation”, a price comparison “à la Netflix”, transparency with consumers and a purchasing policy with the aim of lowering prices.
“We have negotiated a lot in the last two months […]. In the Leclerc group, there are 400 people who work at the national level, on the purchasing policy for the major brands and for private labels. […] We will demand reductions from suppliers”, he insists. And to conclude: “When everything increases, each item has the right to have an effort to be cheaper.”