The weight of the shopping cart drops. The amount on the receipt increases. For the past few months, inflation has been at the heart of French people’s concerns. According to INSEE, the price increase reached 4.8% over one year in April 2022. For the food sectors, this figure was 3.8%.
The inflation observatory set up by 60 million consumers reports that in one year, certain everyday products have been particularly affected. For example, between April 2021 and April 2022, the price of pasta increased by an average of 13.8%. First-rate products, for their part, experienced an increase of 43.7%.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, therefore met with large retailers in order to ask them to support the purchasing power of the French, reports 20 Minutes. As a result, many brands such as Leclerc, Carrefour, Lidl or Casino have implemented exceptional measures.
At the beginning of May, Michel-Edouard Leclerc marched on the various television sets to present the strategy of the E. Leclerc brand to preserve purchasing power. This is called the “anti-inflation shield”.
This measure takes the form of blocked prices on a total of around 120 products among “the most purchased between October 2021 and March 2022” explains the brand, as reported by Le Parisien.
Concretely, the prices of these products can always increase but E. Leclerc guarantees that the holders of a loyalty card are credited with the amount of the increase. This “anti-inflation shield” must for the moment last until July 31.
In competing brands such as Carrefour, a totally different strategy has been adopted.
Carrefour offers a very different solution. Indeed, the supermarket chain has set up two subscription systems. The first, “Daily crossroads”, amounts to 5.99 euros per month. It allows you to benefit from up to 15% reduction on more than 7,000 Carrefour brand products.
The other subscription is called “Carrefour marché frais”. It costs 7.99 euros monthly and also allows a maximum reduction of 15% on all fresh products. According to 20 Minutes, the first subscription is profitable from 40 euros of purchases of eligible products, while the second is from 64 euros of purchases.
Another brand has also implemented its subscription program, but it is very different.
To retain its customers and fight for its purchasing power, Casino decided to strike hard. Indeed, until the end of June, the cost of subscription to Casino Max drops to 45 euros per year, against 90 from July. This program offers a total of 10% discount on all products. In addition, on Thursday and Friday, all fruit and vegetables are sold at 1 euro per kilogram, the difference with the actual price being reimbursed in vouchers.
If the offer seems particularly attractive, 20 Minutes still believes that the subscription becomes profitable from 50 euros of monthly purchase. If you take out the subscription after June, you will have to reach 100 euros in monthly expenditure to obtain profitability.
As for the hard discount brand Lidl, the loyalty program remains free.
“Once a month, each consumer who has the Lidl card will receive a 5% coupon that they can use once a month for all their shopping. This is a measure that will apply until end of August and then we’ll see.” This is what Michel Biero, director of purchases and marketing of Lidl, said on the antennas of RTL.
To be able to benefit from this reduction, it is enough to have the Lidl card, free and dematerialized. It can be downloaded directly to any smartphone.
Many brands are therefore making efforts to try to protect the purchasing power of the French. However, prices could still continue to rise. For Michel Biero, inflation could reach 7 or 8% by the end of 2022.
