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Inflation is a key concept to understand how it can have an impact on the budget for the upcoming end-of-year holidays. More precisely, it is above all a question of understanding the way in which consumers can experience price increases and decreases in their daily lives. And in this sense, establishing an average Christmas budget becomes (almost) useless.
While several recently published studies announced a maintenance and even an increase in the budget for Christmas shopping, an analysis from Ankorstore*, a European platform on which brands present their products to some 300,000 independent merchants, comes to the contrary. current, emphasizing a key reality to understand: almost three quarters of French people (72%) do not feel the drop in inflation on their purchasing power. However, consumer prices did indeed fall below the symbolic +2% mark last August, a first since 2021, INSEE indicated. And in September, the trend was confirmed with an increase limited to +1.2% over one year.
A feeling whose mechanism had been perfectly deciphered by the mass consumption expert, Olivier Dauvers, in an interview for The Dispatch. “The consumer’s eye is much better at seeing increases than decreases. […] The second reason is that a change of a few cents – because that’s all we’re talking about – is not really noticeable. Even more so when you put it into perspective with a shopping cart that costs 80 euros. And then, the third reason is that the principle of an average is that it hides differences. Behind the products which are decreasing, there are others which are still increasing such as orange juice, cocoa or olive oil.“, he had clearly analyzed.
Result: almost half of French people (49%) consider the holiday period to be a source of financial stress, and it is therefore logical that the people questioned by this study announce a budget reduced by 4%, established at 508 euros. But again, this is just an average. Because on a regional scale, if the Ile-de-France residents plan a generous budget of 601 euros, that of the Bretons is less provided, with an envelope of 422 euros. One of the explanations can again be found in the impression of a possible drop in their purchasing power: only 20% of Bretons say they have noticed the drop in prices while they are 43% in Ile-de-France. France.
Finally, the largest budgets above the national average will be spent in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (581 euros) and Provence Alpes-Côte d’Azur (543 euros). The regions of Pays de la Loire, Center Val de Loire and Brittany are those which provide the smallest amounts, established respectively at 428 euros, 426 euros and 422 euros.
In the same way, we can highlight a disparity in budgets depending on age. 18-24 year olds, for example, want to be generous this year, with an envelope whose amount is 34% higher than the average for all French people. Generally speaking, among millennials of whom they are a part, we have the feeling that prices have fallen (48%), unlike those aged 55 and over (79%) whose budget is 485 euros. , a decrease of 8.5% compared to 2023.
*Study carried out by self-administered online questionnaire from August 26, 2024 to September 23, 2024, among a national sample of nearly 300 traders aged 18 and over. Survey of French people carried out for Ankorstore by Yougov online from October 22 to 24, 2024 with a national sample of 2,004 people aged 18 and over, representative of the French population.